Whats a girl to do
by it wasn't me
Summary: DMHG fic head boy and girl a year early. what more surprises are in store for these two? FINALLY COMPLETE please please review!
1. Chapter 1 School Supplies

Disclaimer: All I own is the plot. The characters and everything else belong to someone else.

How does he know?

Chapter One – School Supplies

Hermione Granger was humming as she got dressed that morning, she put on simple blue jeans and a baby blue t-shirt. She was going to meet Ron and Harry in Diagon Alley for their school supplies today. She had missed them so much this summer.

She had gone away for the summer with her parents as usual, they had gone to Italy, to a small seaside town called Anzio, It had been truly lovely but she wished she had gotten the chance of a visit to the burrow as well.

"Hermione, are you ready yet honey?" her dad shouted up

"Just a minute dad, I'm just brushing my teeth" she called back

She quickly finished brushing her teeth and ran downstairs grabbing the list of stuff she needed to get on the way.

"Dads waiting in the car sweetheart" Her mother said as she grabbed her handbag

"Ok" Hermione said taking an apple from the fruit bowl. "Let's go"

The drive to London from Her house took about an hour, so Hermione had taken some magazines with her and was so engrossed that she hadn't even realised they had arrived. They parked down a little back street then went into the leaky cauldron.

"There she is!" Ron yelled to Harry as he saw Hermione and her parents step into Diagon alley.

"Hi guys" she said

"Hello Hermione How was your summer?" Harry asked, he looked a lot thinner than he did before, he had grown a fair bit taller too which made it look even worse.

"Good thanks Harry, I missed you guys so much though, how have you been?"

Harry knew that Hermione was referring to Sirius's death and he still wasn't ok enough with it to talk about it yet.

"So Hermione," Ron said trying to break the tension "are you or are you not going to read all your new school books tonight as soon as you get home?"

"RON!" she exclaimed and playfully punched him on the arm.

"Hermione love, we are going to go and get a coffee at that little ice cream place just down there" her mother said "I could do with a sit down"

"well, well, well if it isn't potty, weasel and the mudblood" a very familiar voice said from just behind them, they turned round to see none other than Draco Malfoy, their enemy since day number one at Hogwarts school of witchcraft and wizardry.

"Although I must say mudblood your looking quite different" he glanced her up and down making her blush quite profusely

Hermione had gone to the hairdressers when she was on holiday and the Italian woman who had cut her hair had been absolutely amazing she had layered it nicely and put some blonde streaks through it. So it now hung in nice waves to her shoulders and she had taken to wearing make up after she had been bought quite a bit for her birthday. Everyone just assuming that's what kind of stuff sixteen year old girls want.

It appeared that Ron and Harry hadn't actually noticed before and they too looked her up and down. If she had known this was going to happen she wouldn't have worn a skirt, her legs were feeling decidedly bare

"Oh please Malfoy" Hermione said rolling her eyes at him.

"Sure sure granger" he said and blew her a sarcastic kiss and walked off.

"Creep" she said

"He's right though Hermione you have changed the way you look a lot" Harry said

"Yeah I know" she said "but neither of you noticed"

"We just didn't want to draw attention to it Hermione, we know how easily embarrassed you can be" Ron said

"Ronald Weasley! I am surprised at you, when did you learn to lie so well?" she asked and laughed at him.

They spent a great day buying everything they needed for school, Hermione bought a couple of new dresses just in case anything came up. After that yule ball surprise in their fourth year she didn't want to be relying on her mother to owl her a new dress should she need one.

"We'll see you at the station tomorrow Hermione" Harry told her as they all went to leave

"Sure Harry" she said and hugged him "See you Ron"

She hugged the red head too and walked to her parent's car.


	2. Chapter 2 The Beginning Of A New Year

Disclaimer: As stated before I own nothing.

Chapter 2: The Beginning of a new year

There was complete chaos and disorder on platform nine and three quarters, there were mothers shouting at their children that they had forgotten things, there were children shouting at their parents. There were first years crying and clutching their mother's skirts. It was the same as every other year, but Hermione's parents were not seeing her off at the train this time they had to be somewhere so they had just dropped her off at the station quickly instead, so she noticed it more than ever.

"Harry, Ron" She shouted to the two boys whose heads were literally towering above everyone else's.

"Hermione!" they shouted in response. Harry took her trunk for her and got it stowed away onto the train. And they went to find an empty compartment.

"There are none" Ginny said coming up the gangway towards them. We have searched all of them now.

"Oh bloody hell" Ron said

"well me and Ron have to go to the prefects carriage for a meeting, we will be back in ten minutes, hopefully there might be a free one somewhere, if not then you guys will have to sit in the prefects one once everyone else has gone" Hermione decided

"Ok see you soon" they all said

So Hermione and Ron made their way to the front of the train.

The prefects meeting was as boring as ever and the new head boy and girl were more interested in what had gone on over the summer than who was doing what.

Malfoy just sat there looking at his nails the whole time.

"You would think that he could at least try to look like he was paying attention" Ron complained

"What's it to you weasel?" Malfoy hissed at him.

"Nothing" Hermione snapped. "Now shut up the both of you"

"Why yes mudblood, oh no sorry, I don't take orders from mudbloods, oh sorry I don't take orders from anybody" He drawled and Hermione gave him an evil glare and returned her attention to the head boy and girl who were now talking about their favourite holiday destinations

"No luck then?" Hermione asked as they found, Harry, Ginny and Neville milling about the corridor still

"Nope sorry" Ginny said she had grown a little over the summer and looked a lot more grown up. Her hair had gone from a ginger to a rich auburn colour and she looked as though she might blossom over the next couple of years.

"Well let me go and see if I can persuade some people to make some room" Hermione said

"Can I come?" Ron asked

"No!" Hermione stated firmly, "I don't need for you to come along and start getting angry if they won't"

"Alright" he mumbled and shoved his hands in his pockets

Hermione was walking along a corridor when she saw a compartment with only three other people in, that left plenty of room for them. Then she noticed who these three people actually were, Malfoy, Crabbe and Goyle/

'No hope there' she thought to herself, then 'why the bloody hell not, we can't stand all the way to Hogwarts and they weren't as great as they thought they were'

She opened the door to the compartment

"Granger!" Malfoy drawled leering at her again.

"Malfoy" she said quite primly

"What can we do for you?" he asked quite smarmily

Crabbe and Goyle just grinned like idiots

"Well I was wondering if there was a chance that you could fit another 5 of us into this compartment, as we don't have one." She asked

"And why would we want to do that?" Malfoy asked, raising an eyebrow"

"Because if you don't then I will tell Dumbledore and you know he is focussing on interhouse unity this year." She said simply

"Stuff it granger it just ain't worth it" he said

"Look its not like they would enjoy sitting with you either" she shouted, she was starting to lose her cool

"Then there's no problem is there. Nobody will get upset this way"

She got her wand out and pointed it at the blonde haired boy  
"you either make room. Or I will bring out your ferret side and there will be a whole lot of room" she told him "understand?"

"Fine!" he said putting his hands in the air, when this gets out I am going to be the laughing stock of slytherin,"

"I don't believe you Hermione," Harry said "of all the people on this whole train, Malfoy" he shook his head and ran his hand through his untameable hair

"We have no choice" she told him firmly "lets go"

The rest of the train ride was certainly no picnic and Hermione felt as though she was babysitting the whole way there. She and Ginny had to go to the toilets and change into their robes

"Don't you think he's cute?" The redhead asked

"Who?" Hermione said

"Harry of course" Ginny said shaking her head "who did you think I meant flipping Malfoy? Although he isn't bad"

"Oh sorry gin, I was just thinking about school stuff" Hermione excused her lack of attention

"No surprise there then" they both laughed

"He's been my friend way too long for me to be able to tell you if he is cute or not" Hermione said "but if you like him Gin then ask him out, you never know it could do him the world of good"

The girls went back to the compartment, and all hell was breaking loose. Ron was punching Crabbe and Goyle, and Harry and Malfoy were fighting. It was mental.

"THAT'S ENOUGH!!!" Hermione shouted. "What the hell is going on?"

"Potter was making digs about my father being in Azkaban" Malfoy said not quite looking her in the eye.

"Liar" Harry said "Malfoy was saying Sirius deserved to be dead"

"The two of you stop it" Ginny said "were nearly there and we have to get all of you cleaned up before Dumbledore sees you"

So the girls got to work cleaning up the boys. And were just in time as the train pulled up at Hogsmeade station.

(A/N will update when I start getting some reviews. I need to know what you guys think of this. Thanks)


	3. Chapter 3 The Great Feast And A Surpris

Disclaimer: All I own is the plot

Chapter 3 – The great feast and a surprise

They were bought up to Hogwarts by the Thestral pulled carriages and were all sitting down at the table in the great hall, waiting for the sorting of the new first years to begin.

Miranda Bones had just been sorted into Hufflepuff as Dumbledore stood to make his annual announcements.

"as most of you already know the forbidden forest is strictly forbidden to all students of any year, there are another thirty six items added to Mr Filches list of forbidden items. The full list of all 597 items may be viewed outside Mr Filches office, now before we all settle down to the feast I have an unexpected announcement to make and I know this will come as a bit of a surprise to some people. But unfortunately the young lady and gentleman that I appointed to be your new heads have decided that they do not want to fulfil these positions after all. So I am left with no choice but to replace them. I have no other seventh year candidates at present as I feel that you will have enough to do with your newts. We usually only put students that can cope with their own study load and more as heads, so I am going to appoint sixth years. And I want all students including seventh years to show them respect and treat them as they would heads their own age, and with that I would like to ask Miss Hermione Granger and Mr Draco Malfoy to step up here"

"Oh my god!" Hermione said and immediately turned a deep shade of red, Malfoy too looked pleased.

They both made their way up to Dumbledore

"Well would you both like to fill these positions, if you do then they are yours for the next two years, if you don't then you will have no chance of being head boy or girl next year either"

"Yes, yes of course" Hermione said, she was beaming

"Yes sir" Malfoy said

"In that case I believe these are yours" Dumbledore's eyes twinkled as he handed the head badges over to the two students.

"Professor McGonagall will show you to your rooms after dinner"

"Enjoy your feast everybody"

"Nice one Hermione" the whole of Gryffindor table was shouting as Hermione sat back down and she was being patted on the back and all sorts.

She turned to Harry and Ron "you know what the worst part of it is don't you?"  
"What's that?" Harry asked

"I have to share a common room with Malfoy for the next two years"

"That sucks Hermione" Ron said

"Well if he doesn't behave himself then you tell us" Harry told her and gave her a hug

Malfoy looked over at the three of them from his table and felt something in the pit of his stomach. 'I can't be jealous of them' he thought to himself 'I have friends'

'Yeah like Crabbe and Goyle, good friends they are'

He decided to stop looking and he might not be so pissed off with it all.

After dinner had finished Malfoy and Hermione both made their way over to professor McGonagall.

"ok you two follow me" she said and led them to the centre of the castle, there was a small building just off the courtyard with a portrait of a woman and a man sitting in a swing holding hands

"The password is Hogwarts Unite" she told them "there will be a meeting tomorrow evening after dinner, Good Evening"

They said the password and went into the common room, it was twice the size of their previous common rooms and had everything they could want in there. There were two soft suede sofas, a large glass coffee table. There were quite a few bookshelves and a large marble fireplace. With a little more exploration Hermione found a place where there was a little marble tablet that you could write something onto and it transported the message to whomever it was that you were sending it to. Hermione wrote a message onto the elves in the kitchen saying "can we please have a jug of pumpkin juice and a plate of biscuits" she then tapped it with her wand and said "kitchen" the tablet she had written on cleared itself and all of a sudden there was a plate of biscuits and some pumpkin juice sat on the coffee table along with two goblets 'nifty' she thought.

Obviously it only worked with professors and the kitchen as other students didn't have a receiving device for this.

She looked around a bit further there was a winding staircase that led up to two rooms, there was a door on the left with Mr Malfoy engraved into the wood. There was a door on the right with Ms Granger engraved onto that, Hermione opened the door to her room and gasped in astonishment. It was utterly beautiful. There was a king-size four poster bed in the middle with pink and purple silk sheets on it. There was a gorgeous writing desk against the wall, with the most comfiest chair she had ever had the pleasure to sit in. and there was the largest wardrobe she had ever seen.

She went back downstairs to take a look around the bathroom. It was twice the size of the prefect's bathroom. It had a swimming pool sized bath in the middle and had twice the amount of taps that the prefects one had as well. There was a shower big enough to fit herself in 5 times over and there were the fluffiest white towels hanging from the rack

"Nice isn't it mudblood?" Malfoy asked from the doorway

All of a sudden they heard a loud beeping sound coming from the common room "what the hell is that?"  
"I don't know" Hermione said and rushed in. it was the marble tablet that was making all the noise, it had a message on it

"Dear Mr Malfoy and ms granger, if you do not learn how to get along then I will have to seriously rethink your positions, Dumbledore" it said

"He must have heard you call me a mudblood" Hermione decided

"Great now we get spied on as well" Malfoy muttered

"well just don't call it me anymore and we should be ok" Hermione said there are probably just certain things that trigger it off"

"Ok then granger" he said "I'll just have to bite my tongue"

The tablet started beeping again

"Please use each others first names" it said

"Bloody hell" Malfoy said

"Ok Draco. I don't want to lose this position for anybody, we will just have to do it" Hermione said

"Me neither" he agreed "Hermione, Hermione, Hermione"

"You don't have to say it that much" she told him

"Well it feels funny when I say it" he told her "so I was just trying it out"

"Goodnight Draco" She said and rolled her eyes. She went up to her bedroom and fell into a peaceful sleep.


	4. Chapter 4 First Day Of Classes

Disclaimer: I just own the Plot

Chapter 4 – First day of classes

Hermione woke up bright and early the next day. She had, had the best nights sleep of her life. Her new bed was the most comfiest she had ever slept in.

She got out of bed and ran to the shower. Luckily Malfoy wasn't up yet so she had a bit of extra time to enjoy the hot water

Ten minutes later she stepped out of the shower and wrapped herself in a towel. She was trying to find one that covered her legs but couldn't seem to. Now she wished she had bought her clothes with her too.

She exited the bathroom and found Malfoy lounging on one of the sofas.

"Good morning her-mio-ne" he said and saluted her

"Nice legs"

She ran up to her room 'lecherous git' she thought to herself as she put on her school uniform. She pulled her hair into a messy yet sexy bun and applied a small amount of make up, she preferred the natural look, unlike lavender and parvati who seemed to like the town trollop look.

When finished she made her way down to breakfast and to her surprise Ron and Harry were already there.

"Morning" she said as she sat down and grabbed a couple of slices of toast

"Morning" Harry replied

"Morning" Ron repeated "so how did last night go?"  
"Not too bad actually" she told them, she told them all about the marble tablet and Dumbledore's messages, and how nice the place was

"That sounds good Hermione" Harry said "I wish you were still in Gryffindor tower though"

"I know Harry and in some ways I do too" she told him and gave him a friendly hug

Over at the slytherin table Malfoy nearly choked on his juice at the sight of them. 'Hugging again! There is something wrong with them'

"Ok so this years timetables" Hermione said and started passing them out,

"Great we have every lesson with the slytherins this year. I wonder why?" Harry moaned

"Dumbledore wants interhouse unity this year" Hermione told him "he said with Voldemort liable to plan an attack sometime soon, we need to all get along and so he is pairing up Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw and then Gryffindor and Slytherin. Which I suppose makes sense really. Although Slytherin is probably full of death eaters so I don't really know how well that's going to work"

"When did he say all that?" Harry asked

"In the prefects meeting on the train" Ron said "I forgot about it to be honest mate"

"Why am I not surprised?" Hermione asked

First class on Mondays was double potions with the slytherins as it had been for the last five years.

"Ooh my favourite" Harry said sarcastically as they made their way to the dungeons

They all made their way into Snape's dungeon classroom. The place was as dim and intimidating as Snape himself.

Hermione, Harry and Ron all sat together

"Right" Snape yelled "before any of you go getting comfortable we are having a switch around this year on Dumbledore's orders. I shall read out the pairings and then you will sit with your partner for the rest of the year."

He pulled out a roll of parchment and began to read

"Potter, Zabini….Weasley, Goyle….Longbottom, Crabbe…Brown, Parkinson….Patil, Bulstrode….Granger, Malfoy…"

Everybody moved around

"What did I do so wrong to get stuck with you yet again?" Malfoy asked as Hermione sat down next to him

"Just lucky I guess" she said and smiled sweetly at him

"Eurgh!" he groaned "do I have to be with granger?"

"Yes Draco, you do and her name is Hermione I believe. I want to talk to you two after class actually" Snape said grinning at Malfoy

"Oh joy" Hermione muttered

"I heard that ms granger" Snape snarled at her

The lesson went quite smoothly Snape had them researching the potion that made people able to read each others minds for a week.

"you can only read the persons mind who's hair you put into the potion, a little like polyjuice potion in that aspect" Hermione said answering a question that she had been asked

"Yes so you will be able to read Mr Malfoy's mind for a week and vice versa" he told her

They were all dreading making the potion and using it next week

"I do not want you reading my mind for a week Hermione" Draco told her

"The feelings mutual Draco" Hermione said scratching away

At her parchment with her quill.

"I think I would probably end up insane"

For the rest of the day classes went quite smoothly. Although it seemed that they had to stick with their potion partners in all lessons. Snape had indeed seen them after class to tell them that he felt it more beneficial for the head boy and girl to work together as they would be able to fit it in round their head duties better than they would if working with others and also to tell them about the password for Dumbledore's office for their visit later on,


	5. Chapter 5 The Meeting And Another Surpr

Disclaimer: I own nothing but the plot!!!

Chapter 5 – The Meeting and another surprise

Hermione walked to Dumbledore's office as she had finished dinner before Malfoy and didn't want to wait around for him. Knowing the other slytherins would think it was a little odd.

And probably start bad mouthing her too. That Parkinson whore had been glaring at her since she and Draco went to their common room yesterday.

"Fizzing whizbees" she said to the gargoyle outside Dumbledore office.

"Hermione wait up" Draco shouted as he ran up the corridor. Hermione waited for him and they went up together.

"Good evening" Professor Dumbledore said as they entered his office. Professor McGonagall and Professor Snape were both there too.

"Good evening professor" they both said

"Well we have a few matters to discuss this evening" He told them "first of all as heads you have the ability to give points and take them away, assign detentions and visit Hogsmeade on the odd occasion without it being a special day. You will schedule Hogsmeade dates for the other students, quidditch matches, and also decide if you want to have any balls or not, any questions?"

"Do we have to schedule the patrols as well?" Hermione asked.

"Oh yes, sorry I had forgotten" he smiled at her

"Right if there isn't anything else to ask then I have something important to tell you Hermione"

"Ok" she said and looked confused

"well at the beginning of the summer Mr Malfoy came to me and asked if there was anything he could do to fight against voldemort, as now his father is out of the way he is free to be able to." He told her

"Right" she said trying to get her head around it. "So you never wanted to be a death eater?"

"No I never did!" he said and she could tell he was being honest. "My father did some evil and wicked things to me, my mother and other people well now he is rotting away in Azkaban I fully intend to put the monster that he was working for into the ground"

"So anyway Mr Malfoy is going to be joining the order of the phoenix" Dumbledore said "and I was hoping you could talk to Mr Potter and Mr Weasley and help them to understand the situation, as they are quite often quick to assume things"

"Certainly sir" Hermione said

"Then in that case you two may go" he told them

"That went better than I expected" Dumbledore said to Snape and McGonagall

"Ms Granger has always been very mature for her age" McGonagall said proudly

"I agree, but don't tell her that" Snape said

They chuckled at him

"And ruin your reputation with the students Severus? Never" Dumbledore laughed

Hermione and Draco made their way to the common room quietly neither daring to speak to each other in the hallways

When they entered they both sat on opposite sofas.

"I always thought you wanted to follow in your fathers footsteps" Hermione said meekly "I am sorry"

"and I am sorry I always called you nasty names and picked on you" Draco told her sincerely "I know its not much compared to what I have put you all through for the past five years but that's that best I can do right now. I will try to make it up to you all"

"Thank you Draco" she said "want to do some work on that potion?"

"Yeah sure" he said and went to get his notes

Half an hour later they were engrossed in their school work when there was a knock on the door.

"Hmm wonder who that is?" Draco said getting up to open the door.

It was Harry and Ron,

"Is she in Malfoy?" Ron spat at him

Draco just held the door open for the pair of them

"Erm thanks" Harry muttered and walked in

"Hi guys" Hermione said "you fancy the guided tour?

"Just going to take a break for a bit Draco" she smiled at him

"Ok" he said

She took them upstairs to show them her new room

"Draco???" Ron asked "since when did we call Malfoy Draco?"

"Since Dumbledore said remember" she said "besides I have something to tell you"

She launched into what Dumbledore said in his office and the boys were both shocked and didn't really know what to say

As they went downstairs Harry walked up to Draco and said

"It's your father's fault that Sirius died. And you have been the bane of all our lives here at Hogwarts. But if you prove to all of us that you have changed then I would like for us to be friends. If you don't then when I kill voldemort I will take you down with him"

"Ok Harry" Draco said and held his hand out to him.

**Please, please don't forget to read and review. I value all your reviews and look forward to reading them. – Thank you**


	6. Chapter 6 Getting Acquainted

Chapter 6 – Getting acquainted

The next few days passed quite smoothly. Malfoy and Hermione spent a little bit of time on their own in the common room and got to know each other a little better.

"Draco would you mind if Harry, Ron and I came with you to Hogsmeade on Saturday to just hang out a bit I think it might do us all some good?" she asked him

"Sure, I don't see why not. I haven't really been hanging around with anyone from slytherin too much just lately and a lot of them understand that I don't want to join voldemort now" he said "they probably won't care anyway"

"Why do you say that?" she asked him, he was staring into the fire with a sad look on his face. Probably the only real hint of emotion Hermione had ever seen him show. It made her realise that he was only a human being much the same as she and everybody else. The Draco Malfoy of old would have had everybody believing that Malfoy's don't feel emotions. This humbled her a little.

"Well all the time I've been here I haven't really had any friends, people who ask if they can hang out with me you know" he said staring more intently at the burning embers.

"what about Crabbe and Goyle? What about Blaise?" Hermione asked

"They were never like that" he told her "I would always just say right we're going to Hogsmeade now and they would follow me because that's what they did. Never asked hardly even bloody speak them two. And they were only really my friends because their fathers forced them too."

"I see" Hermione said. A solitary tear escaped one of Draco's steely grey eyes. Hermione wiped it away with her thumb and looked him in the eyes. "Well maybe we can be friends?"

"You know what I think I would like that" he told her and smiled, not the classic Draco Malfoy smirk but a genuine smile. His eyes smiled at the same time. It was the nicest she had ever seen him look

'Oh boy! Hermione thought to herself. 'You don't want to start thinking like that girl or there is just going to be a whole heap of trouble'

She looked like she was berating herself inwardly as Draco turned to look at her. He looked at her she had her eyes shut slightly and she was frowning. 'Crazy girl' he thought to himself.

"Well I think it's about time for dinner" Hermione said to him suddenly "you hungry?"

"Starving" he said

They both made their way down to the great hall for dinner. When they arrived Hermione saw Ron, Harry and Ginny deep in debate about quidditch

"Not quidditch again" she groaned

"Don't you like it?" Draco asked

"I like watching it, but not hearing about it sixteen times a day" she replied

"Come sit with me then" he said "it'll give me someone to talk to and also it will get you away from the quidditch discussion?"

"Erm I dunno, I am not sure. Harry and Ron might get a little bit funny about it" she said "tell you what let me go tell them then I will come over"

"Ok" he said simply "I'll save you a seat"

Hermione walked over to the Gryffindor table and tapped Harry on the shoulder. He turned to look at her

"Hey Hermione" he said and grinned up at her

"I was just coming to see if you guys minded if I go and sit with Draco as he is feeling a bit lonely now. Because of his situation he doesn't really have any friends in slytherin much anymore."

"Sure Hermione" Harry said

"Wait a minute" Ron said, they all thought he was going to start shouting "why don't you ask him to come sit over here?"

Hermione was a little taken aback by this. Ron had definitely done a lot of growing up over the summer.

"Well I would" she said "but he has already sat down now and started eating, I will get him to next time"

"Ok" they both said "see you in a bit"

Hermione wasn't too sure about the way Ron was being it made her feel slightly uncomfortable but if he was being genuine then she was so pleased. It was something she had always hoped of. A Ron that loses his temper easily and shouts a lot wasn't always her favourite kind of person.

She walked over to the slytherin table and they all gave her funny looks as she sat down next to Draco.

"What are you lot looking at?" he asked them, they quickly all looked away. After all he might not be a bad person anymore but he still scared them.

Pansy was glaring at Hermione, so she nudged Draco.

"What's her problem?" she whispered

"Jealous" Draco shrugged "we stopped seeing each other, so now she thinks I shouldn't talk to other girls or look at them. In fact I think she reckons I shouldn't be allowed to breathe the same air. But you never know with that little slut to be honest"

"That's not a nice name to call somebody" Hermione said she was a bit shocked as she wasn't really used to bad language

"Well sorry but she is. I walked into my bedroom and found her in bed with Crabbe and Goyle" he said "well they can have her, after that I found out she has slept with nearly every male slytherin in our year and half of the Hufflepuff lot too"

"Crabbe and Goyle?" Hermione asked checking she had heard right "Ewwwwwwwwwwwwwww!!"

"Exactly" he said

They finished dinner and Hermione noticed her friends had already gone

"Great" she sighed

"Well we could go up to the tower?" Draco suggested

"Nah" Hermione said "I wanted some fresh air"

"You don't like flying do you?" he said

"Yeah I do" she answered "most people think I don't its just that I prefer to do other things. I don't mind it though"

"Ok then lets go for a ride?" he said

"Ok accio broom" Hermione shouted and a shiny steel broom flew to her from the broom shed

"A firebolt excel" Draco said raising an eyebrow "whose is that?"

"Mine" Hermione said proudly "I sent off for it at the end of last year, but I didn't tell anybody because I knew they would all want to be riding on it"

"Nifty" he said "accio broom"

A broom much the same as Hermione's but a metallic green colour flew towards them

"What kind of broom is that?" she asked

"Actually it's just a custom built one. It's based on your broom but then it has a few bits that I requested to be added myself"

They both mounted their brooms and flew over to the quidditch pitch

"Does it go faster than mine?" Hermione asked

"No not really your broom has the top speed to it for the time being and until they do some more enhancements in that area nothing will go faster" Draco explained "oh god I am boring you, sorry!"

"Not at all" she said smiling at the new Draco's consideration for her

"Let's have a race" she said

"ok but I am warning you Hermione I am a skilled quidditch player and have flown many more times than you, so don't feel too bad when you lose ok" he said

"Cant keep that ego in can you" she laughed at him "I will try not to be too upset"

They both set off and Draco was winning by a little way when Hermione swerved into him knocking him off course and made it round to the entrance to the quidditch pitch, which they had decided would be the finish line

"I don't feel too upset" she said smirking "how about you?"

"Wow!" he said getting off his broom "that was some pretty neat flying where did you learn that?"

"Just by watching everybody else really" she said and yawned

"Mm that fresh airs wiped me out, let's go to bed"

"Why Hermione! I thought you would never ask" Draco said laughing at her

She just rolled her eyes at him and went to put her broom away.


	7. Chapter 7 hogsmeade and the unexpected ...

Chapter 7 – Hogsmeade and an unexpected kiss

It was Saturday morning and the sun was shining brightly it was a lovely day for September. Hermione got out of bed with a spring in her step, she loved Hogsmeade days and she loved the sun.

She went to the bathroom to shower and get ready but as she approached the door she saw Draco just about to go in,

"You using the bathroom?" she asked

"Well I was going to but you can if you like" he said "I'll just get something to eat first"  
"ok, could you ask for some fruit for me please?" she asked

"Sure" he said and went and wrote on the marble tablet. Hermione entered the bathroom as Draco lounged back down on the plush sofa.

Hermione quickly showered, she didn't want to leave him waiting for too long it seemed a bit rude.

Just as she was getting out of the shower and pulling her towel on she slipped on a wet patch on the floor and fell over

Draco heard her scream from the common room and burst into the bathroom. Hermione was lay on the floor with her towel just round her clutching her toe "Arggghhhhh!" she was shouting

"What happened?" he asked running over and looking at her foot

"Slipped" she said "stubbed toe and I think I may have twisted my ankle"

"Ok I will fetch Madame Pomfrey she will fix you up" he said and went back to the marble tablet.

Only a few moments passed before Draco entered again with Madame Pomfrey.

"Don't worry love" she reassured the girl "you'll be right as rain in a jiffy!"

"Thank god its killing" Hermione said

"And I thought Gryffindors were meant to be brave" Draco snickered

Hermione glared at him,

He just shrugged and grinned at her.

A few minutes of wand waving and a vile tasting potion later and Hermione felt as good as before

"Thank you Madame Pomfrey" she said pulling her towel round herself some more

"Your welcome" the aged Medi witch said and left

"Sorry about that Draco" Hermione said blushing, he was staring at her towel with avid fascination.

"Huh? Yeah no worries" he said "now I need my cold shower"

"Excuse me?" she asked

"Nothing" he mumbled and shut the door behind her

Hermione grabbed a banana off the table on her way to get dressed. She loved visits to Hogsmeade it meant she didn't have to wear her frumpy robes and she could look around Flourish and Blotts (the bookshop) to her hearts content.

She chose a pair of comfortable Nike trousers they were baggy in the leg but hugged her hips and a black vest top.

She decided to leave her hair down and keep it simple.

She was just finishing up as Draco knocked on her door.

"Are you ready yet woman?" he asked

"Yes!" she said and opened the door "you're already done?"

"Yes Malfoy's do not take long to make themselves look good. Most of its pure nature anyway" he stated

Hermione laughed at him and he raised an eyebrow

"What's so funny?"

"Nothing, nothing" she said "just you're so funny"  
"thanks" he grumbled and grabbed some sunglasses

They made their way to the entrance hall where they were meeting Harry and Ron. Who were there waiting already

"Thought you were never coming" Harry smiled at Hermione

"I twisted my ankle in the shower" She explained "had to

Have a visit from Madame Pomfrey"

"Bad luck" Ron said "Let's go"

They made their way past filch and his stupid list and found a carriage to take them down to the village. Draco sat next to Hermione and Harry next to Ron.

"So what do you usually do when you go to Hogsmeade?" Draco asked

"well, usually me and Ron go to the quidditch shop for a bit whilst Hermione goes to Flourish and Blotts" Harry said "then we go to the three broomsticks for a butterbeer, Honeydukes, Zonkos and the usual sort of thing"

"Sounds good to me" the blonde said nodding

"So are you going to go to the quidditch store with those or Flourish and Blotts with me?" Hermione asked

"Erm tough call, I love both those shops" he said and you could see him trying really hard to decide

"I think I am going to go for the quidditch this time" he said "sorry"

"No it's good" Hermione said, "I am used to going by myself anyway"

"Ok good" He said and smiled

They departed their carriage and Hermione told them that she would meet them in an hour and she walked into her favourite shop in the entire world.

Meanwhile the boys entered the quidditch shop  
"so who's your favourite quidditch team?" Ron asked Draco

Draco wasn't too bothered about teams. He just liked to play mostly but he decided to try and find some common ground with Ron

"Chudley Cannons of course" he said smiling "actually I wanted a new shirt, my father would never allow me to wear anything so brightly coloured and now I can wear anything I want to"

"Cool" Ron said "you should get the seekers number on it, with you being a seeker and all"

"I prefer the goalkeeper" Draco said "my father made them let me play seeker and now I am stuck with it, but I am a better goalkeeper"

Harry and Ron were both really surprised by this new information

Draco had always liked goalkeeping but part of the reason was the goalkeeper's shirt was green so it wouldn't look as stupid on him as the other shirts would

They continued to look around the shop for the rest of the hour. Draco decided to buy Harry and Ron both a present for later but he didn't tell them yet.

He went and paid for his purchases

"Just put them on the Malfoy account" he told the cashier

"Yes sir" she said and beamed at him. Bagging all his stuff up

"Hermione" they shouted as they walked out of the shop, she was just walking over and had a bag "what have you bought?"

"Well I needed a new diary and a quill, and I bought a book"

She said and started to tell them about the book

"Butterbeer" Ron interrupted and started steering the brunette towards the pub.

"Ok ok" she said and laughed. They made their way inside and found an empty table.

"I'll go get them" Harry said and went over to Madame Rosmerta

He came back a few minutes later with four Butter beers and noticed a few slytherins walking in and gawping at them

"What you lot looking at?!" He asked surprising Draco

They all looked away

"Nice one pott…Harry" the blonde smiled

"Thanks" Harry said ignoring the near slip up with his name. It was habit after all he supposed

Ron was greedily slurping his butterbeer and Hermione was frowning at him

"Ronald, do you have to be such a pig?" she asked

"Sorry" he said and started drinking properly

"ok well we are running out of time, so we best get cracking" Draco said "where to next honeydukes was it?"

"Yeah" the trio said and they exited the pub

Honeydukes wasn't as busy this late on in the day so they could move a lot easier than normally.

Harry was looking for some jelly slugs and Ron had gone up the stairs to find some exploding sherbet. Draco was talking to the woman about some special sweets he had when he was little and wondered if they still had any.

Harry was walking down an aisle where Hermione was. "Hey, have you seen the jelly slugs?" he asked

"Yeah they're here" she said. "Was just getting some for myself, but don't tell my mum"

Harry laughed, Hermione laughed. There was that typical hushed silence that seems to take over the world and everything stopped. They slowly neared each other and Harry's lips brushed Hermione's. She was a little shocked but didn't pull away instead she kissed him back a little. Suddenly Harry pulled away "I'm sorry Hermione" he said "I am sooo sooo sorry"

"Harry" she said as he had put the slugs back and left the shop

"Great"

She made her way to the counter where Draco had discovered that they didn't have his sweets, he looked severely annoyed and Hermione tried to console him. "It's alright" she said

"It isn't" he said "well it is but you know I was looking forward to them"  
she paid for her goods and Ron came and paid for his  
"where's Harry?" they asked her

"Well I think he wanted to go back or something" Hermione said blushing. "Not too sure really"

But it turned out Harry had not gone back he was just sat on a bench in the street

"You alright mate?" Ron asked him

"Yeah fine" Harry said he looked tired "just needed a sit down and a bit of fresh air"

"Maybe you're coming down with something"

"Yeah maybe" Harry said "let's go"

They went to Zonkos which didn't seem much good anymore compared to Fred and George's new shop in Diagon alley

They rode back to the castle there was an odd atmosphere in the carriage and Draco started to feel a little paranoid so he decided to give the boys their gifts. "Harry, Ron" he said "I bought you both a little something to show my appreciation"

"You didn't have to do that" Harry said and smiled that the slytherin was trying to make a good impression

"What is it?" Ron asked

Hermione laughed at Ron's impatient ness

Draco passed them both a small paper bag each and they opened them. Inside was a miniature golden snitch

"cool" they both said "its not just a little snitch" Draco explained if you see on the back its got a little pin, like a badge and if you wear it then it can make you move really fast like the snitch so nobody can really see you"

"Wow man that's awesome" the boys both looked so happy

Hermione grinned and was pleased that Draco had managed to break the ice somewhat. She looked over to Harry who was smiling about his present and looking a little embarrassed by the gesture, their eyes met and he looked away

She was really confused by all this, they were going to have to talk she decided.


	8. Chapter 8 The explanation and a tragedy

Disclaimer: I still do not own anything except the plot and with there being so much stories around I doubt even that's totally mine. I really cant be bothered to put a disclaimer on every chapter so this counts for the whole story past chapters and any future chapters I upload also - Thanks.

Chapter 8 – The explanation and a tragedy

Hermione had put her stuff away from Hogsmeade and gotten changed into a pair of faded jeans and a white v-neck top and some trainers, Saturday evenings were great they were a time to relax, or in Hermione's case do your homework except the teachers hadn't handed any homework out that week due to the extensive essays they had assigned the week before. Hermione however had already done them last week. So she was at a bit of a loose end as to what to do.

"Hey Hermione" Draco said coming out of his room

"Hey" she said "I didn't know you liked the Chudley cannons"

"Well all truth be told I don't particularly like them, I don't mind them though, just wanted to break the ice a bit" he said smiling a little shyly.

"Well I am sure it will have done that. You all got on quite pleasantly didn't you?" She said "speaking of which I really need to go and speak to Harry"  
"Why what's the matter?" Draco asked

"Ah its not really anything important" she said, not really wanting to tell him to mind his own business, but at the same time not wanting to tell him why  
"It ok Hermione don't look like that I wont get upset if you don't want to tell me. Just because we are starting to be friends doesn't mean you have to tell me everything" he said and she looked at him, he was being sincere and she was glad.

She gave him a friendly hug and went to go out of the door "See you in a bit Draco"

She was gone, Draco was feeling a bit lonely now. He didn't really have anyone he could go and see, and what did she have to go and hug him for. He enjoyed the hug it was nice. It made him feel wanted and he couldn't ever remember having had a hug like that before, his parents had never shown him any affection. His mother had tried to sometimes but his father had always punished her and told her 'to stop encouraging the boy to be soft'

And she had hugged him and then just left. He sat on the sofa moping for the next half an hour then decided to go for a walk up to Gryffindor tower and see if the trio wanted to do something.

Meanwhile Hermione has gone up to Gryffindor tower, upon reaching the fat lady she said the password 'honour' and went in.

Harry and Ron were playing wizard's chess as per usual. And Harry was not really paying attention

"Hi Guys" she said

"Hey Hermione" Ron said "haven't been here in a while"  
"Yeah I know" she said "actually I was wanting to speak to Harry if you don't mind"  
Harry stared off in another direction "I don't feel like it Hermione"

"HARRY POTTER!" she shouted "YOU WILL TALK TO ME"

"Fine" he shrugged

Ron was confused and Hermione felt bad because of it.

Hermione grabbed Harry's arm and dragged him into his dorm.

"Would you mind telling me what the hell is going on and why you won't talk to me?" She asked.

"Hermione I do not want to talk about it" he said "cant you just forget anything happened?"

"no" she said he was maddening her more and more by the minute "I cant and I wont and I don't see why you would ask me to"  
"because we cant do this" he said "there are too many reasons why not, nothing good can come from this"  
"so I don't have a right to an explanation because you don't want to tell me. Because you don't feel that it's right or whatever well maybe I don't think its right either, maybe I agree nothing good can come from it. But how would you know. You won't TALK to me about it!" she was shouting now and she didn't care, he had infuriated her so much

"Fine" he whispered sitting on the edge of his bed, his head in his hands

Hermione sat down next to him

"its just that well, I like you Hermione" he said "but I could never be with you, that incident in Hogsmeade was very selfish of me and completely stupid, I don't know how you feel about me but it doesn't matter it couldn't be anyway"

"Harry I don't know how I feel either, I am just very confused" she told him

"Its just that if one of Voldemort's followers had seen what happened you would be more of a target than you already are. Also Ron really likes you and I don't think it would be very fair of me" he said

"Harry we are friends ok, I don't think anything should come between our friendship ever" she told him "friends?"

"Of course he said and they smiled at each other and went back downstairs and to their surprise Draco sat playing chess with Ron.

"Hi" he said to them

"Hi" Hermione said "whose winning?"

"Draco is" Ron said looking rather disgruntled, he wasn't used to being beaten at chess and he didn't like it

Draco picked up on this and started playing badly, within a couple of minutes Ron had won and was happy again

"That's the thing with chess" Draco said "can go either way"

Hermione could tell Draco had let him win and whispered to him

"You're going soft"

He tapped her arm softly and said "shut up"

"Dinner time" Ron announced "I am starving"  
"When aren't you?" Harry asked leading the way out of the common room.

Ron walked ahead with Harry, the only time he rushed around the castle was on his way to meals.

"So did you sort out your little problem?" Draco asked Hermione as they bought up the rear. "We could hear you shouting"

"You couldn't?" she said going bright red

"We couldn't hear what you were shouting" he told her "just that you were"

"Thank goodness for that" she said "yeah we sorted it out"

"Good" Draco replied simply

Draco sat with them in the great hall to eat, more nasty glares came from the slytherins. And he ignored them quite graciously

"Well we need to go and do some work to plan the Halloween ball" Hermione said to Harry and Ron after they had finished eating

"Ok" they said "we will see you tomorrow ok?"

"Yep" Hermione said "goodnight"

They made their way back to their own common room. They were halfway there when Professor McGonagall came rushing up to them "oh miss granger, I was just coming to find you"

She said, she looked very harassed and Hermione was a little worried

"Could you come to professor Dumbledore's office with me at once" she said

"Certainly" Hermione said

"Should I come as well?" Draco asked

"That's really up to Hermione" she said

Hermione nodded her head

They followed their teacher through the corridors and past the stone gargoyle to their headmaster's office.

"Ah ms granger, please take a seat" he said, his eyes weren't twinkling which worried Hermione a bit

She sat down in one of the chairs and Draco sat next to her

"We have just received word that, I am not sure how to say this it's very upsetting news" he said

"Please" Hermione said "just say it"

"Very well" he said "your parents have been killed by Voldemort, the dark mark looms over your house and we need to take you their to collect your things immediately before they return"

Hermione just stared at him. It couldn't be true. Her mum and her dad the people who loved her more than anyone in the whole world

"NO!" she cried "that can't have happened there must be some mistake"

"I am afraid not miss granger" Her head of house said and embraced the girl

"Ok when do I have to leave" Hermione said

"At once" Dumbledore replied

"Ok" she said "can Draco come?"

"If you wish" he said he noticed the two were getting along a lot better and was glad of this, it would do both of them some good.

He gave them each a tub of floo powder and told them that they would have to floo to a witch who lived round the corner from Hermione's house.

"Just say Eldora Prism" he told them.

Hermione went first, then Draco and then Dumbledore. Professor McGonagall had remained behind to oversee the rest of the students and wait for their return. She wanted to go and warn Harry and Ron what had happened to their best friend. So they would be able to comfort her on her return

They were in a normal everyday muggle living room when a young lady with turquoise robes came and said hello to them

"Thank you Eldora" Dumbledore said "we will be back very soon"

They left and walked to Hermione's house it wasn't far and she could see the dark mark as soon as they had stepped outside

She was trying so hard not to cry but it was proving very difficult and she was shaking.

Draco had noticed this and took her hand in his

She looked at him and he just looked back at her with this odd expression on his face. It was half a look of concern and at the same time half a look of guilt

"It's not your fault" she told him

"I know" he said "just since my father was a death eater I always feels guilty for this sort of thing"

"Well you mustn't" she told him and squeezed his hand slightly, he just smiled at her

They entered Hermione's house and noticed that everything was pristine. There was no mess anywhere no signs of violence. Hermione walked into the living room and there on the sofa were the bodies of her parents sat next to each other holding hands on the sofa, they had been watching TV when some evil person had come in and avada'd them.

"At least it was quick" she said crying

"They won't have even known what happened" Draco said trying to reassure her

"Good" she said

Dumbledore looked at the people in the living room. He had to organise a wizarding funeral. The muggles wouldn't be able to cope with two people just dropping dead with no sign as to why

"Ok Hermione collect your belongings we must go" he said "they will probably come back soon"

Hermione ran up to her room and filled her suitcase with every item of clothes she owned, next she grabbed a big box and threw all her personal belongings into it. She went into her mum and dads room and took all their photo albums and some little keepsakes. Her mother's jewellery box and their bank details. She didn't want anyone else getting hold of any of that stuff. It was hers now.

She finished packing everything that was important to her and then went down to Dumbledore. "What will happen to the rest of this stuff?" she asked

"I will shrink it and it will go into storage for you, for when you finish school" he told her

"And what about the house?" she asked

"You will have to sell it, you could never continue to live here and you couldn't ask anyone else to either. They would become a target for voldemort. Only by the house having a new owner. Thus changing its aura can it be free from the dark mark you and I see above it"

"I see" she said her lip trembling "but I don't know how to sell a house"

"I will do it for you Hermione" he said "don't worry about it"

They left and Hermione went straight to the heads rooms with her stuff. She put it all down in the common room and sat on the sofa staring at it

"Hermione" Draco said "can I get you anything?"

He was deeply concerned for her and didn't really know what to do

She let out a sob and shook her head

"I just want my mum and dad" she cried

"Oh Hermione" he said and sat down next to her. She leaned her head on his shoulder and he put his arm round her.

Any one who saw this would have thought it had been natural but Draco was completely out of his depth. He sat there thinking to himself. Should I say something? Should I stay quiet, should I go and fetch Ron and Harry?

"Would you like me to get Harry and Ron?" he asked her

She shook her head

"Ok" he said and just sat there some more

Hermione twitched every now and again. This worried Draco slightly

Half an hour later Hermione looked up at Draco, "sorry" she said

"Don't be sorry" he said "I just wish there was more I could do to help"

"You're already helping" she told him. He didn't know why he did it and he regretted it straight away after, but he leant down and brushed his lips against Hermione. She kissed him back eagerly, he knew it wasn't because she wanted to but because of the grief she was feeling. It did funny things to people sometime. But instead of stopping he kissed her more deeply, he sensed the need in her and they were both on fire with this kiss. It felt like it was never going to end. All of a sudden Hermione pulled away and ran to her room

Draco groaned 'oh god, what have I don't' he thought to himself. He went up and listened outside Hermione's door all he could hear was insane mutterings and the odd scream and slam. He decided to not interrupt her as she needed to let off some steam. He sat outside her bedroom door for what seemed like an eternity until all of a sudden there was smashing glass and a scream and then no noise. Draco ran into the room and Hermione was sat on the floor. She had smashed the mirror and from the looks of things tried to cut her wrists with the mirror. Draco didn't understand the muggle concept of slitting ones wrists but he did see a lot of blood. He ran to the common room and just scrawled HELP HER on the marble tablet and sent it everywhere

There was suddenly a mass of teachers invade their common rooms. There was Dumbledore, McGonagall, Snape and Madame Pomfrey. They burst through the doors, Draco had gone back up to Hermione's room. She had passed out now and his knowledge of healing spells was poor, he didn't know how to help her, so he just held her. He was covered in her blood and he was whispering to her. He had never been so scared in all his life.

**I would like to thank all the people that have reviewed so far and ask people to continue to read and review. It helps inspire me to write more. After all what's the point in writing if I don't know whether people are reading it or enjoying it Thank you again **


	9. Chapter 9 Time to heal and a lesson lea...

Chapter 9 – Time to heal and a lesson learned

"Hermione, Are you awake?" she heard a voice ask, she blinked as she opened her eyes it was so bright in the infirmary

"Harry?" She asked

"Yeah, how are you feeling?" He asked as he sat down next to her bed

"Not so good" she said "I really don't know why I am still here, I don't want to be"

"you are lucky, Draco saved your life" Harry told him, he always thought it would be he that saved her, never the cold hearted slytherin boy that they had recently allowed into their lives

"I, I didn't want to be saved" she said sadly shaking her head.

"Hermione, Draco thought he was helping, he doesn't understand that you did that to yourself, he is accustomed to people cursing themselves to die, not that method. I am not sure if he would have done the same if he had known. But more than likely he would, he has been in pretty bad shape the last three days"

"God what have I done to him?" Hermione gasped lifting her hand to her mouth as she did so she noticed her wrists were bandaged heavily

"He will be better once he sees that you are ok" Harry said "He has spent a lot of time in here the last few days, barely even leaving to eat"

Hermione mused over this for a second, he must still be feeling guilty although she had told him not to it wasn't his fault at all.

"And to be totally honest Hermione if it was me in that position and I do know what you were trying to do I would have stopped you also. We love you and we don't want to lose you" Harry told her as he stroked her hair

"I know you do" she said "but I just feel so full of grief and sadness, it's unbearable it's trying to consume me"

At that moment the doors to the hospital wing burst open and Draco rushed in followed by Ron.

"Dumbledore said you were awake" he said and held her hand

"You scared us" Ron said taking her other hand

"I didn't mean to scare anybody" she said, she was crying and she couldn't meet Draco's eyes.

"Hermione Professor McGonagall explained to me what happened. I didn't know I swear it. If I had realised what you were doing then I would have given you the honour to decide if you wanted it stopping or not" Draco said

Harry and Ron both stared at him uncomprehending what he had just said

"You would have let her kill herself?" Ron asked, he was totally

Taken aback at what he had just heard

"Of course" Draco said "I wouldn't have wanted to but there is an unwritten pureblood code that says should the witch/wizard decide their time is up then it is for them to choose and others should not interfere"

"Draco?" Hermione asked

"Yes" he said, he was a bit upset by the way Harry and Ron were being but he knew what he believed and he thought this to be honourable

"I am not a pureblood, you can't have forgotten that can you?" She asked

"Of course I didn't but you are as good as in my eyes" He said

Hermione finally met his eyes she understood that he just thought she was badly hurt.

"Thank You Draco" she said and pulled him into a slight hug

She still wanted to die but she knew she must thank him to put his mind at rest.

"Your welcome" he said "I am still sorry though"

"That's enough for one day" Madame Pomfrey said and came shooing them out of the hospital wing

"Can I just have a private word with Hermione quickly?" Draco asked coming back into the ward after Harry and Ron had gone

"Make it quick then" She said to him and went back into her office

"What is it Draco?" Hermione asked

"I just wanted to tell you something I thought it perhaps might help to make you feel better" he explained

"Ok" she said and motioned for him to sit on the bed

"Well my father went to Azkaban this year as you know and my mother has fled the country and gone to live with her sister, she is trying to get rid of the endless amounts of spells my father had placed upon her with the help of the ministry. See the thing is that has left me all alone. I have no remaining family and just lately apart from you, Ron and Harry I don't seem to have any friends either, so well what I am really trying to say to you is I know how it feels, I know my parents weren't murdered and taken from me like yours were but I have lost them none the less. Even if they do manage to cure my mother she could never really care about me now. Not after everything that has happened to her. Do you want to know what she said to me just before I came back to Hogwarts?"

"What was it?" Hermione asked. She didn't know when it had happened but Draco had absentmindedly taken hold of her hand and was stroking it

"She told me that I looked too much like my father, that I was a constant reminder of the pain and suffering she has endured for the last eighteen years. She had been under spells before I was even conceived. She said she couldn't help it but she didn't love me. She says she doesn't hate me, but she can never love me either and that I would just be better off without her in my life. Then she apparated. She never told me where she was going or even where her sister lives. She didn't even say goodbye" he was crying slightly as he said all this. It clearly hurt him deeply. He did remember times when she had appeared to love him. She had probably just been trying to live up to the expectations of a mother at that time. But when Lucius had reprimanded her for it she had never seemed to have been too bothered not to be allowed to anymore.

"Oh Draco that must have been awful for you" Hermione said squeezing his hand slightly

"Yes it is. But the reason I am telling you this is so you know you aren't alone. I considered cursing myself" he told her, which was true he had a number of times "but then I just thought of my father rotting away in his cell and thought that if I could bring the bastard down that had perverted my fathers mind and caused him to torture my mother so it would be worth being alive, and I swear to god I will, and I am glad I did otherwise I would never have had a friend like you Hermione"

Hermione sat up when he said this and hugged him again, he was glad of this she felt so comforting although he was a bit upset shouldn't it be he comforting her. She was always so selfless. She let his problems wash over hers for the time being.

"I know what you're saying Draco and it was rash and stupid of me. And well now I think about it I am glad you saved me. So so glad" she told him

And she truly was, she had never even considered the fact that someone else's life would be so miserable. Especially not someone so close to her.

"Right then Mr Malfoy you had better be off to bed now" Madame Pomfrey said as she came back into the ward. She had come to tell him before but had heard what he was saying and decided to leave him for a bit longer.

Hermione only spent another two days in the hospital wing and then she was free to return to her dorms.

"You may take extra time off your studies if you wish" Dumbledore told her as she arrived at her common room "time to heal"

"I am healed" she told him showing him her wrists, they had ever so slight pink scars on them

"No!" he said and patted on his chest "In here" and with that he walked off.

Hermione knew what he meant and ran after him

"No" she said "I have learnt a very, very valuable lesson these past few days"

"Yes miss granger what was it?" he asked her, his eyes twinkling

"That even though I feel bad I am not the only one, and that I can't let it control my life, I must take control of it and learn to fight back"

"Indeed" he said "and who did you learn this most precious lesson from?"  
"Draco" she said simply

"Mr Malfoy has indeed suffered some terrible pain this year, and he has adjusted pretty well on the outside at least, I feel now he has shared some of his pain he may well be healing too" he said "I am glad you two have become good friends, you can do much for each other, goodnight" he said and again walked off

**Thanks for the reviews for the last chapter**

**DCMMFAN**** – thank you for your input. I however feel that I do not want to drag things out too much as there is going to be a lot of stuff going on in this fic and I have already filled 19 chapters with it. If I dragged it out anymore I could be here for a long long time. Also I think that everybody deals with things such as death and losing loved ones in so many different ways that it depends on how I interpret it. Plus as Dumbledore said they would need to hurry**

**I do appreciate your comment though as I think any constructive criticism is useful. Thank you again**

**Please keep reading and reviewing people. Thank you!**


	10. Chapter 10 – Back to reality or supposed...

Chapter 10 – Back to reality or supposedly anyhow

Hermione turned around and went to her common room

"Hogwarts unite" she said to the portrait and walked in.

Draco was sat on the sofa staring into space

"Hermione!" he said "you're home"

"Yes" she smiled "and I feel a lot better too"

"That's great, did you want to go and see Harry and Ron?" he asked

"no not tonight I would just like to rest and see how much homework I am going to have to catch up on tomorrow" she said sitting down

"No homework I'm afraid" he said "the teachers have been too busy with something to set homework the lessons the last few days haven't been planned either, they have been simple reading of text books, rubbish"

"Oh" she said "but I have already read all my text books"

"Why am I not surprised" he laughed and rolled his eyes at her

"Look Draco I don't know if I should mention it or not but when we kissed the other night, I was just looking for some comfort" she told him, she was fidgeting with the hem of her robe as she spoke. She felt uncomfortable mentioning this, it had been a pretty amazing kiss. Nothing like the one Harry had given to her, but she didn't know if she had meant it or not and didn't feel now was the right time to go looking into that sort of thing. She hoped he would understand.

"I know" he said "its fine. I was trying to comfort you, that's why I responded"

"I see" she said "I think I might go to bed"

"Goodnight Hermione" he said and smiled at her

He watched her walk up the stairs, the truth was the last couple of days he had thought of nothing but their kiss. He had kissed a few girls and never had sparks like that ever, it was amazing it was as if they were both made for each other. But Draco had learnt to be hard hearted throughout his life and was not fond of rejection so whilst Hermione said this he had decided to not tell her he had been glad of the kiss.

He had dreamt of it. It had even stopped him from having the dreams of his father, he was thankful for that.

He sat on the sofa staring into space for another few hours, if there was one thing that Draco was good at it was sulking

All of a sudden he heard screaming 'not again' he thought rushing to Hermione's room. He opened the door, but she was dreaming.

"No no not mummy" she was crying, it was obvious she was imagining her parents being killed

"Hermione wake up" he said to her and stroked her hair "come on wake up"

She didn't wake up she just cried and then let out an almighty scream she was writhing and flailing her arms about

He pressed her arms down and whispered to her

She woke up then and started crying even harder. He held her to him and let her sob into his shoulder

"Sorry" she was saying over and over again into his robe

"Shhhhh" he said and stroked her hair some more, she seemed to like having her hair stroked it calmed her down

"I can't do it" she said "I can't"

"Cant do what?" he asked

"I can't forget"

"You have to" he told her "eventually you will"

"What if I don't?" she whispered, she had never been so scared in all her life

"You will, trust me" He said and tipped her chin up so he was looking at her.

"I do" she said and looked at him, his grey eyes were piercing, she felt they could see all the way into her heart and mind

he looked down at her, she made his heart ache, he had known when they first had come to this common room, that this girl would do something to his life, he wasn't so sure what it would be after all she was not at the time his friend, but he knew how she was, she was one of the most amazing people he had ever met, she had slapped him in their third year, and nobody except his father ever had stood up to him like that. Even though he had been greatly maddened by it, it had earned her a touch of respect within him. Not one he would have ever admitted to but it was there.

She has the most beautiful chocolate brown eyes that you felt you could swim in. they were so warm and gentle. Even when they had tears coming from them

"Good" he said "did you want to go back to sleep now?"

"Yeah, thanks" she said and he went to his room

He doubted he would sleep but you never knew, and even if he didn't he could always get a potion off Snape.

Turns out he did get quite a bit of sleep, he had fell into a dream about Hermione and it was quite pleasant until the end part where she turned round to him and said "I can't be with you Draco, we are not meant to be"

He woke up in a cold sweat, he had an urgent feeling it wasn't a dream, it was a vision of the future, how soon in the future he could not tell. But he knew

"Morning Draco" Hermione said as she came out of the bathroom

"Stop" he said to her and walked right up to her, he took hold of her face and looked at her then wiped the toothpaste off the corner of her mouth with his thumb.

She had thought he was going to kiss her again. But she had toothpaste by her mouth, how dumb she thought to herself, what she would have done though if he had she did not know.

She didn't know. She liked Draco but she was as confused by him as she was Harry, she knew Ron liked her too, he had since about their second year. And by fourth year it was rather painfully obvious, however despite all this he had never said anything to her. He had gone out with a few girls from their year but always said they weren't right for various reasons.

Hermione finished getting ready and went down to the great hall and found a seat with Harry, Ron and Draco

"Morning" they said to her

"How are you feeling?" Harry asked

"Much better" she said and smiled at him. He could see some kind of cloud in her eyes and wondered why this was there. She looked at Harry and then all of a sudden there was a flitter of realisation across her face and she looked away from him

"Hey what's up?" he asked

She ignored him

"Mione what's the matter?" Ron asked

she continued to look down, all of a sudden there was the sound of professor McGonagall tinkling her wine glass with a spoon "your attention please"

The students all turned to look, except Hermione who continued to look at the floor

"You may have all noticed the last few days that your classes have been fairly simple" Dumbledore said

"This is because myself and the other teachers have been strengthening the wards around the castle and this is very complex and tiring magic. But now it is finished your academics shall return to their normality. Thank you"

Harry turned round to tell Hermione that he thought she would be pleased by this news but she had gone, she hadn't stayed to hear the end of the headmaster's announcement.

She had run straight to the dungeons where they would be having potions and a minute later Draco arrived to see her red eyed leaning on the wall.

"Hey what the hell happened back there?" he asked, he sounded concerned but he was a little annoyed by it

"Nothing" she said "I just realised something"

"What's that?" he asked

"I can't tell you" she said

"After everything I told you?" he asked, he was hurt that she wouldn't tell him so he lashed out

"you're an ungrateful bitch" he said "I tried to help you and all you can do is bottle up your feelings, its not bad enough that you tried to take the cowards way out but now you wont even confide in the one who has tried to help you the most"

He stormed into the classroom and sat at the back. Snape wasn't there yet but he didn't particularly care it wasn't as if he would be in trouble he never was.

Hermione stalked in a moment later. She sat next to Draco and he raised his blonde eyebrow at her and went to make an exceptionally nasty comment about her parents, but luckily she made a gesture for him to be silent and he did so.

She turned to him and said "let me explain something to you"

"Ok" he said

"When we went to Hogsmeade the other day, Harry kissed me" she said, he began to interrupt but Hermione continued anyway. "I don't have feelings for Harry like that, but he told me that it was too dangerous for us, I just realised at breakfast that someone must have seen him kissing me and decided to kill my parents to get at him through me"

"Quite possible" Draco muttered "there are still quite a lot of death eaters spying"

"So its harry's fault my parents are dead" she stated

"Well yes but he realised his mistake didn't he?" Draco asked

"Yes, but too late. Not before it had cost them their lives. He should have thought of that before he went and did it" she said

"Maybe so, maybe so" Draco said "we are making that potion today you know"

"Oh I totally lost track of time" Hermione said

Harry and Ron came in at the same time as Snape and never had chance to speak to Hermione. She was glad of this and they all set to work on brewing their potion.

Hermione and Draco worked well together and they had their potion finished twenty minutes before everyone else

"It looks right"Snape said and smiled at them both"ten points to slytherin and five points to Gryffindor"

Hermione was totally taken aback. Snape giving points to Gryffindor whatever next

"Only five?" she asked

"Shhhhh" Malfoy said "or he will take them back"

"You two may drink your potions" he said

They each poured some into a cup. Hermione plucked a hair from her head and placed it into Draco's cup where it dissolved instantly. Draco placed one of his own and put it into her cup

"You had better have washed your hair" she said to him

"Malfoy's wash their hair twice a day" he said to her

She rolled her eyes at him.

"Bottoms up then" they said and downed the foul tasting concoction.

'Yuk' Draco thought

'I agree that is the worst potion I have ever tasted' Hermione thought 'hold on it worked'

"Of course it worked" Draco said aloud. "We are Hogwarts best students. Like it wouldn't have"

"So can you two read each others minds?" Snape asked

"Yes sir" they replied in unison

"Very good" he said and went back to his desk

Everyone else managed to get theirs finished and Harry and Ron instantly looked annoyed.

Even Neville and Crabbe had gotten theirs right, Hermione was quite surprised

"You do realise most of Gryffindor will need therapy by the end of the week don't you?" Draco said "Slytherin are a disturbed lot"

"Will I?" she asked

"You could do with a bit of therapy anyway" he said, he was trying to cheer her up and it was working a bit

Harry walked up to her after class

"About earlier?" he asked "you realised didn't you?"  
"Yes" she said quietly

"I am so sorry Hermione, if there was anything I could do to take it all back I truly truly would, and I cant expect you to forgive me, god knows I would never forgive peter Pettigrew"

He said

Hermione didn't see him in the same light as Pettigrew but Harry obviously did. This made her realise how bad he must feel

"Harry you didn't mean for it to happen" she said and hugged him

"Oh Hermione" he said and started crying "you don't know how happy I am you don't hate me"

"I could never hate you" she said

"Well I am glad you have sorted it out" Ron said "ewww Goyle's thoughts are disgusting"

"what's he thinking about?" they asked him  
"Snape in his underwear" Ron said and laughed

"That's truly disgusting" Hermione said

'Hey Draco' she thought, he had gone ahead earlier

'Yes'

'Did you know Goyle's gay?'

'No but it explains a lot'

Hermione laughed, Harry and Ron looked at her strangely

"Delayed reaction" she said


	11. Chapter 11 – Another’s mind

Chapter 11 – Another's mind

They had herbology next and Professor Sprout was showing her class the methods of extracting the venom from a rare and special plant called 'cobra elleborus' it was said to be useful in remedying madness.

Hermione wasn't really paying a lot of attention and was staring at the pretty flowers on it. She went to touch a petal, Draco had been observing her from across the room

'Stop!' he yelled in his head, instantly she drew her hand back

'Why what's the matter' she thought back to him

'Sprout just said if you touch the plant without gloves you will be poisoned' he thought

'Oh, thanks' she blushed

'No worries'

The rest of the class went by without mishap. And it was soon lunch time

"Thank god" Ron said "I'm Starving" he patted his stomach

"Is that all you ever say?" Draco asked him "you sound as bad as Crabbe and Goyle"

"If only you could read his mind too, you wouldn't think so" he cringed at this

"He is definitely going to need some therapy" Hermione said to Draco, he grinned.

Hermione wasn't used to seeing him grin. He had been smiling more lately and that was lovely but grinning was even better, he had a lovely smile

'I heard that' he told her in his thoughts

'Eurgh, get out of my head' she told him

He grinned at her again

"What's he smiling about?" Ron asked Hermione

"How should I know?" she asked

"You can read his mind cant you?" he asked her

"Oh yeah" she said "I had forgotten"

"Well Zabini has almost proved to me he's quite a nice bloke" Harry said looking over at the slytherin table where Blaise Zabini was staring into space. He doesn't seem very slytherinish at all.

"He isn't" Draco said "he is a good man really, he just is under a lot of pressure from the other slytherins otherwise I would probably talk to him some more"

"Why don't you ask him up to the common room sometimes?" Hermione asked "you could do with some company sometimes"

"Good idea" he said "Harry think it to him would you? I don't want to go over there"  
Harry did as he was asked

"He says he will come by after dinner" Harry told them and started on his pudding

After dinner it was transfiguration and McGonagall gave them all a pincushion and told them to transfigure it into a hedgehog.

'Bloody hedgehog' Draco was mentally screaming at the pincushion. He could get the hedgehog but the spikes weren't coming it had a cushioned back full of pins still.

'Wow Draco stop yelling, you're giving me a headache' Hermione had been startled by the invasion to her head

'Sorry it's just driving me nuts'

'You need to concentrate harder'

'Easy for you to say, you did yours half an hour ago'

'Sorry'

'Help me'

'How can I help, you need to envision a hedgehog as clearly as you can, and only then should you use your transfiguration spell'

'Hmmmph, that's what I was doing' he thought

'Well I thought you might be that's why I can't help. I can't imagine it for you can I?'

'No' he sulked and then had an idea 'think really hard of a hedgehog and I can see it from your mind'

'That's cheating isn't it' she asked

'Nah' he said and laughed slightly

'ok' she said and screwed her nose up slightly as she thought really hard a minute later Draco had a cute little hedgehog wandering about his desk.

"Well done Mr Malfoy, second in the class, ten points to slytherin" McGonagall said. She had awarded Hermione twenty for finishing first.

Harry and Ron eventually managed to have hedgehogs and class was dismissed

"I hate hedgehogs" Draco said "that's why I couldn't picture it so well"

"But you did yours second, you can't have had that bad a time of seeing it" Harry said

"Well It still took longer than it normally would" Draco said quickly

Hermione frowned at him

"Oh would you look at the time" he said "Charms"

Flitwick showed them an interesting charm that changed your appearance for ten minutes. It was similar to what Tonks could do but very temporary.

Hermione turned her hair ginger like Rons and they all fell about laughing.

Harry turned his hair ginger too then and they all laughed even harder, but when Draco turned his hair ginger that was it they all died laughing. Hermione looked at him and thought to herself how much he had lightened up

'Glad you appreciate it' he said and stuck his tongue out at her

'Ahh I forgot stop reading my thoughts' she thought

'Hah'

Hermione straightened her hair and turned it a dirty blonde colour with some red streaks in it.

'wow she looks gorgeous like that' Draco thought to himself quietly, Hermione knew he had but didn't dare say anything so she kept that knowledge to herself and quickly changed It back to normal.

Dinner time soon came around but Hermione wasn't hungry so she stayed in the common room reading,

A message came through on the marble tablet

'Hermione, Please come to my office, Dumbledore'

It said so she quickly went

"Come in" he said as he heard her knock.

The girl entered, he noticed she had lost a fair bit of weight over the week, but then he remembered that he had hardly seen her eat a thing at mealtimes.

"You requested my presence sir?" she asked

"indeed, indeed do sit down" he said waving his hand at a chair "sherbet lemon?"

"No thank you" she declined

"Well I have sold your house" he said "I am led to believe I got a very good price on it for you as well"

"Yes sir" she said

"it was valued at three hundred thousand pounds" he said "but we got four hundred for it, this has been deposited into a Gringotts account for yourself, here is your key, and also I wanted to tell you I have arranged your parents funeral for tomorrow at ten am. You will be excused from classes tomorrow"

"Ok" she said, she had quietened at this news

"Come to my office at half past nine tomorrow, you may have someone come with you if you wish" he told her and gave her a small hug  
"goodnight sir" She said and went to bed

she wasn't sure if Draco had tuned into her going to Dumbledore's office and she didn't want him to offer to go with her, she had to do it by herself, she wasn't sure why but she just felt it was something she had to do.

Draco came back up to the common room after dinner and didn't know where Hermione was. He checked her room and found she was in her bed. She looked so peaceful for the first time in a long time. She had this look about her lately that could only be described as haunted and he hated it. He wanted her to be happy and she clearly wasn't it was like today in class. She had turned her hair ginger and had been laughing but that wasn't her. There was nothing in it. It was shallow and meaningless a clear front that she had been putting on for their benefit.

'She should know I can see through it though' Draco pondered to himself.

All of a sudden there was a knock at the portrait door and Draco opened it, Blaise was stood there grinning at him

"Hey mate" he said and stepped inside

"Zabini" Draco said and pulled him into a manly hug

They sat on the sofa and were chatting like old times.

"Potter certainly has a thing for granger doesn't he?" Blaise said

"I dunno" Draco said "you could be right though"

"Don't forget I can read wonder boys head" the dark haired boy snickered

"His names Harry" Draco said "not wonder boy"

"Hey lighten up Malfoy, and since when did you start calling people by their Christian names?" He asked

"Since they are my friends" the blonde replied

"Am I not your friend then?"

"Of course you are" Draco said realising the balls up he had just made, "you know what us slytherins are like, its always surname, surname, and surname"

"So you are going to start calling me Blaise or what?"

"Yeah sure why not" Draco smirked at him

Hermione was whimpering in her room

"Whats her problem anyway, she seems a bit upset lately?"

"She just had a few family problems" Draco said "she will be ok just takes a bit of time, as we know"

"Too right" Blaise said, his father had been in Azkaban since Voldemort's first reign. Everyone expected him to be a death eater when he grew up but Draco knew that would never happen, he hated and despised the dark side.

"Anyway mate I got to go" Blaise said "I think they are having a party tonight and if I am not there people will talk"

"When don't they?" Draco asked and saw him to the door

"Don't be a stranger Blaise"

"I won't"

Draco decided to have an early night for once. But went to check on Hermione before he went to bed. She wasn't sleeping well he could tell but she wasn't as bad as she had been the other night.

He went to his room and came back with a teddy bear he had since he was just a year old, his nanny had given to him and he had managed to hide it from his father, he was never able to have toys, it was a waste of time and productive thinking his father had said and punished him whenever he found him playing with one.


	12. Chapter 12 The Funeral

Chapter 12 – The Funeral

Hermione rose very early the next morning and found a cute little teddy bear in her arms, he was brown with a little button nose and she had no idea how it had gotten there. She looked at the pristine condition of it then had a thought

'Draco? Are you up?'

'Yes good morning'

'Did you put a teddy in my bed?'

'Yes I did, his name is Sidney and if you are finished with him could you bring him to my room please?'

She walked down to his room and knocked on his door

"Come in" he called she went in and found him tying his tie.

"So how did Sidney find his way into my bed?" she asked

"You were having another nightmare, and I thought he might comfort you, it seemed to work as well" he said

He finished with the tie and put his slytherin crested robe on.

"Thank you I appreciate that" she said

"Shouldn't you be getting ready for class?" Draco asked her

"I am not going to class today" she said "I have something to do"

"Ok" he said, he could tell he shouldn't press on the issue and he didn't try to read her thoughts either. He respected people's privacy well to important things. Matters of whether he looked nice grinning didn't count.

"Are you coming to breakfast?" he asked

"No" she said "I am going to order something from the kitchen, I fancy some porridge"

"Fair enough" he said and grabbed his book bag. "See you later"

"Bye Draco" she said as he left.

She placed the bear down on his bed and went back up to her room to find some black clothes.

Ten minutes later she was dressed in black trousers, a black shirt and a pair of smart black dress robes. She knew she didn't have to be so formal. But she thought that she should be.

She didn't have any breakfast she had just said that to appease Draco. She made her way to the headmasters office and both he and Professor McGonagall were there waiting for her. They both also wore black

"Come miss granger" Dumbledore said and led her to a carriage outside. It took them to Hogsmeade to the cemetery.

She saw the two mahogany coffins sat side by side to each other.

"Couldn't they have had a large one between them?" Hermione asked. "They would hate to have been separated. They were so in love"

Professor McGonagall gave a swish of her wand and Hermione's wish was granted.

"Thank you" Hermione said and walked over to the coffin. She lifted the lid and looked at her parents. She put her mothers hand into her father's hands and tipped their heads a bit so it was as if they were looking at each other.

"That's what they would have wanted"

She was quite calm until the vicar had finished his reading and started with the whole "ashes to ashes, dust to dust" stuff and they started lowering the coffins into the ground

She started crying uncontrollably and Dumbledore had to stop her from jumping onto the coffin.

"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!" she screamed.

"Arghhhhh" Draco yelled and fell off his chair in history of magic class. Professor Binns eyed him and then ignored him.

"Sir I have to go to Madame Pomfrey" he said and fled from the classroom. Whatever was going on with Hermione was not good. She was in pain, he didn't know if it was physical or emotional. But she needed him he felt it.

He ran, he got as far as the entrance hall, when he realised he had absolutely no idea where she was.

Hermione was led back to the carriage by Dumbledore and McGonagall. They knew better than to try and cheer her up.

She needed to sort her own head out and whatever they could possibly say would not help.

They arrived back at the school and saw a blonde boy outside the entrance hall pacing and pacing like a madman. He turned and saw Hermione and stopped pacing. He ran up to her

"Are you ok?" he asked

"Yes" she said slowly

"You screamed so loud, I fell off my chair and I was really really worried" he said

Hermione laughed that he fell off his chair

"Well I am glad you find it so funny, I was worried sick. Did you not see me pacing? Malfoy's DO NOT pace" he told her

The Headmaster and Deputy Head laughed at Malfoy and then smiled at them and left

"Want to go back to the common room?" he asked her

"Yes please" Hermione said and they set off.

They didn't have too far to walk and when they got there Draco sat her down on the couch and took her shoes off her.

"God your feet stink" he said

"they do not!" she exclaimed  
"I know" he laughed

"So I am guessing it was the funeral today?" he asked

She nodded her head in reply, she was rather ashamed of her childish outburst at the cemetery earlier.

"Well at least you have gotten it out of the way, it's never a good thing to go through and sometimes its easier once it's done" he told her

"You could be right" she agreed, "it just seems so hard to let go of it now"  
"it will be" he nodded "I don't think people ever truly let go anyhow they just learn to live with it"

Draco ordered them some lunch from the kitchen,

"You could have told me you know, I could have come with you"

"I know, I just felt that I should do it on my own" she said "I am not sure why it was just a feeling I got"

"I understand" he said

The food appeared a minute later and he got tucked in. Hermione picked at an omelette. And Draco frowned at her

"This you're new way to plan on killing yourself?" he asked "starvation?"  
"That was low" Hermione glared at him

"Sorry, I just think you should eat more than you have been. Your going to make yourself ill you know"  
"I know but I just don't have any appetite" she said

"Well try at least" he said "please"

Hermione managed to eat half her omelette and Draco looked please

"Happy now?" she asked

"Yes" he said and looked smug

Draco went over to the marble tablet and sent a message. A moment later a message appeared in return.

"Who were you messaging?" Hermione asked

"Dumbledore" Draco told her "I am staying off class for the rest of the day to keep you company"

"Thank you" she said "I wonder if Harry and Ron will come up later, they don't come to see me so much anymore"

"I think they just don't want to upset you" Draco said trying to be sensitive

"Yeah I guess your right" she sighed

"I am always right" he smirked,

'Sexy smirk' she thought to herself

'Really?' he thought at her

'Oh good god' she thought and blushed

"Draco, just because I think you have a sexy smirk doesn't mean anything" she said "every girl in the whole school thinks that"

"Ah but every girl in the whole school also happen to think I am gods gift to women and would love to be with me" he said

"I doubt it" she said "you just love yourself too much!"

"I most certainly do" he agreed "if you don't love yourself why should other people?"

"That's an interesting theory" she said "and only you could come up with something like that"

They talked for a while about all sorts of rubbish, Hermione was still thinking of her parents a lot but Draco was trying to help take her mind off it and it seemed to help quite a bit.

After Dinner that night Harry and Ron did come up

"What was wrong with you in class Draco?" Ron asked, they had been a bit concerned that he had fallen off his chair and they hadn't seen him for the rest of the day. They assumed he had spent the rest of the day in the hospital wing

'Please don't tell them' Hermione thought

'Ok'

"I had a really bad headache" he said "had some disgusting potion and it went"

"Good, everyone thought you had gone mad" Harry said "Blaise thought it was funny though"

"He would" Draco mused "wait till I get hold of the little runt"

They all laughed at this.

Hermione went and sat on the sofa.

"I haven't seen the daily prophet in about a week, what's going on with the world Ron?" she knew Ron had taken out a subscription to the newspaper last year and kept it up. She had cancelled hers due to lack of funds, not that it mattered now. She was considerably wealthy.

"Not much you know random attacks from death eaters. Muggles being attacked the same old really" Ron said he sounded sad, most of the wizarding world was though

"I just wish he would give us something we could fight properly" Harry said slamming his fist on the coffee table, "I am sick of sitting here waiting"

"Not much else you can do" Draco said "he will not strike himself until he is a lot stronger. He's only a shell of what he was in comparison really"

"Did they have any idea how long it would take for him to get his strength back?" Hermione asked

"Not really" Draco said "I don't really know much about it. I tried not to pay attention. I am sure if it was mentioned Snape will have told Dumbledore though"

"I guess so" Harry said "I never did tell you guys the prophecy did i?"

"it got destroyed Harry" Hermione said

"It did" he said "but Dumbledore was the one the prophecy was spoken to, so he knows it, and he told me at the end of the year"  
"and you didn't tell us?" Hermione and Ron asked

"I was a bit upset at the time" Harry said "or did you forget?"  
"How could we have forgotten that?" Ron asked

"We liked Sirius too remember" Hermione said

Harry went on to tell them the prophecy about how it had to be him who went up against voldemort and how only one could survive

They were all shocked. Draco didn't really believe in prophecies so much, but if voldemort had wanted to hear it so badly he obviously did,


	13. Chapter 13 Normalcy for a while

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Chapter 13 – Normalcy for a while

It sped towards winter at an alarming rate, Hermione seemed to be coming to terms with the loss of her parents a little more every day, she had received news from an owl her favourite aunt had sent to her that everyone in the family were thinking of her and if she wanted to she would be able to stay with her in the summer.

Draco hadn't heard from his mother but then he hadn't expected to but he did get a letter from the ministry one day

Dear Mr Malfoy Jr,

We regret to inform you that your father has made innumerable attempts to escape from Azkaban prison and on this note we must take matters further.

He will be administered the dementors kiss on Sunday December 5th

If you would like to come to Azkaban to say goodbye. Then please reply and let me know, I will sort out an appropriate chaperone.

Yours regretfully

Cornelius Fudge

(Minister of Magic)

Draco just stared at the parchment and frowned. He wasn't too sure if he was happy about this or not. He should be he supposed. His father had never really been a father to him.

He showed the letter to Hermione, she glanced up at him quizzically,

"How do you feel about this Draco?" She asked

"Good I think. Well I am pretty sure I am glad, he is a waste of space and the world would be better off without him" he told her "and at least then my mother would be able to sell the estate or something and have some money"

"Are you going to go?" she hoped he didn't want to. She didn't see what good that would do.

"No" he said "I don't want him thinking I care, because I don't"

"Ok" she said

Time went by as it tends to do. Ron and Harry spent more time with Hermione than they had been doing. And Draco spent a lot of time in the Gryffindor tower, much to the chagrin of the slytherins.

On the 7th of December Draco received an owl from his father's solicitors,

Dear Mr Malfoy Jr,

We deal with all the Malfoy estates and such like as we have done for many a year. We have been sent confirmation that your father received the dementors kiss on the 5th, and so now we have followed his will. He left his entire estate to you apart from a small mansion in Paris that he has left to your mother. I have taken the liberty to transfer the balance of seven hundred and forty six thousand million galleons to your personal Gringotts vault. Also the deeds for your fathers many properties and for his few businesses are in there also. I hope to speak to you soon and look forward to doing business with you

Yours Sincerely

Mr Budgekins

Draco was in shock, he was surprised his father had that much money. He knew money was something he had never had to worry about but still he hadn't realised quite the proportion of his fathers wealth. Hermione wasn't around when this letter had arrived she had been up in Gryffindor tower having a girlie make over session with Ginny, he hid the letter in his room, he didn't want people to know he had that much money. Not that it really mattered but he felt uncomfortable by it.

He did decide to do one thing though and immediately scrabbled some instructions onto a fresh piece of parchment and sent his owl "Hercules" off to Gringotts.

He was having a nap when Hermione came back, but heard the portrait open and saw her. She looked stunning, but then she usually did. He had thought about her a lot this year, luckily for him he had studied occlumency from Snape in his second year, his father had requested it. So he had been able to cut off any thoughts he hadn't wanted Hermione to read. She however had had many an amusing thought that he had been privy to. He hadn't let her know that he knew some of them. He was going to save them to use as blackmail in the future. Not in a bad way though

"Wow!" he said rubbing the sleep from his eyes "You look nice, going somewhere?"

"no" she said blushing and trying to pull the skirt that Ginny had forced her to wear down a bit more. "Gin just got carried away, I feel like a prostitute or something to be quite honest"

"never, you always look too much of a lady for that" he told her

She sat down on the sofa next to him and tried in vain yet again to pull her skirt further

"Hermione your skirts fine" he said "its about twice the length of the ones pansy wears"

"that doesn't mean all that much, my belt is about twice the length of the skirts pansy wears" she grinned

Draco laughed at this. It was obviously a bit of an exaggeration but humourous none the less.

Harry and Ron came up to the heads common room a little while later and Hermione had changed by then. 'thank god' she thought 'how uncomfortable would I have felt in that skirt sat here with all three of them'

"hey" Harry said as he sat down, Draco had just been and let them in. Harry had pinched his spot next to Hermione, he sent Harry a glare that they all missed and sat on the other sofa.

Ron sat next to Draco

"So guys any plans for the ball yet?" he asked

"Not as yet" Hermione said "we were going to work on it this weekend. That gives us a week to get it ready"  
"shouldn't we have planned this much sooner?" Draco asked her

"Dumbledore said it would be fine to plan it this week, what with everything that's happened" she explained and looked at her hands sat in her lap

"Ok fine" Draco said "so what kind of ball shall we have? Your regular ball or a fancy dress or what?"

"Erm I dunno I quite like the sound of a fancy dress one, make a nice change" Hermione said thinking of things she could go as.

"Ok" cool and what theme should we use to decorate the great hall?" he asked

"What about just colours from all the houses and the crests but have them all interlinked." Hermione pondered

"Sure sounds good" he said "there done"

"Now we just need to have a prefects meeting and go over it with them all" she said and rushed over to the marble tablet, she wrote to Dumbledore their plans and then asked him to inform the prefects that there would be a meeting the next night at 8pm.

The Prefects meeting went smoothly and each prefect knew their tasks. The Gryffindor prefects would decorate a quarter of the hall in Gryffindor colours, this would be done by using red and golden silks, enchanting them so they stuck to the walls and then the other house prefects would do the same with their house colours in a quarter of the hall. They would then cast a charm Hermione taught them to bleed the colours together throughout so say the Gryffindor quarter would mainly be red and gold, it would have the slytherin green and silver, the Hufflepuff yellow and the Ravenclaw blue all bleeding into it. And then they would reach into an arch that would go through the enchanted ceiling somewhat like rainbows and meet in the middle where there would be a big crest of Hogwarts to complete them all.

The prefects thought this was going to take a lot of work but it was actually quite simple. Just a spell here and there.

Everyone was going mad trying to organise their costumes and dates for the ball in a week.

Dumbledore arranged a special Hogsmeade visit so that everybody could go and get new robes and dresses.

Hermione what costume she was going to get yet. And still hadn't got a date either, she knew that Harry wanted to ask her but as yet he hadn't done.

She wasn't too worried, if she ended up going alone she would just say she was being a chaperone to the younger students. All years were allowed to this ball although the younger years had to leave at set times throughout the night. The first years would leave at eight, the second years at nine, the third years at ten, the fourth years at eleven and everybody else at midnight.

So the whole school was abuzz with it all. The younger children were so excited and many of them had sought Hermione and Draco out to thank them for taking them into consideration.

The Hogsmeade morning arrived and Hermione and Draco went down for breakfast.

"Are we going straight after?" Harry asked

"Yeah better to give me all day to choose something" Hermione said "you know what I am like"

They just laughed at her

"Hermione, I could help you pick a costume out" ginny piped up

"No thanks gin, I would like to pick something myself" Hermione said

Ginny looked a bit upset by that and Hermione felt bad. But she wanted to do it herself.

They left just after breakfast and arrived at Hogsmeade soon after

"Right costume shop" she said

"Ok" the boys grumbled following her to the shop.

Draco didn't take too long to find his

"See you at the three broomsticks" he said

"Aren't you going to show us?" the trio asked

"Nope" he said and tapped his nose "It's a surprise"

And with that he left. Harry and Ron didn't take much longer either and they left also

"Charming" Hermione said

"Whose prince charming?" the lady asked "are you Cinderella then?"

Hermione laughed at the aged lady and decided that wasn't too bad an idea

The woman went and fetched a dress from the back of the shop she handed it to Hermione and picked up some glass slippers too

"Try them on then love" she said and ushered Hermione into the changing room.

Hermione tried the dress on it was a lovely powder blue colour, it was tight fitting to the waist then came out at the bottom. (A/N You know how ball gowns do)

She tried the glass slippers on and they were a tad too big so she shrunk them a little with the help of her wand. "Perfect" she said.

She paid for her purchases. It was only a rental but it was still pretty expensive. She didn't mind so much since she knew her parents would have wanted her to buy some nice things with her money.

She shrunk her bag and stuck it into her pocket, she didn't want the boys trying to see.

She went to the three broomsticks just as Ron was buying the boys a butterbeer,

He bought Hermione one too, which surprised Hermione a little seeing as Ron never had much money. They usually treated him, which he didn't like them doing but they wanted to

"Hey Ron, you had a windfall or something?" Hermione joked as she sat down

"Something like that" he said

"Oh yeah?" she raised an eyebrow at him

"well" he said "I received an owl from my mum this morning and she put ten galleons in with it, poor bloody owl, anyway there was a note saying that someone had deposited ten thousand galleons into their vault at Gringotts and had left a note with the head goblin just saying please have it"

"Wow, that's really weird" Hermione said "I wonder who it was"

"That's really cool mate" Harry said "about time your mum had a bit of luck"

"apparently dads running round saying we cant keep it but mum has got some people coming to do a load of repairs and stuff on the house that she cant do" he told them

Draco just sat quietly drinking his butterbeer trying to look surprised.

Hermione noticed this and put two and two together being the clever witch that she is, but decided against saying anything, she didn't want to embarrass either Ron or Draco.

They finally made their way back up to Hogwarts and Hermione carefully put her gown and shoes at the back of the giant wardrobe.

'I wonder what Draco's going as?' she thought as she cast a personalised locking charm on her wardrobe, you could never be too careful she reasoned

She went back down to the common room where the boys were drinking some butterbeer they had sneaked back

"So anyone got any dates for the ball yet?" she asked

"I am going with Hannah abbot" Ron said

"Oooh interhouse, very good" Hermione said

"Well she asked me actually" he said going slightly red

"I haven't asked anyone yet" Harry said "I am not sure if I should or not"

"Why not?" Hermione asked, they all knew the answer to this really and she shouldn't have asked but she couldn't not say anything.

"Oh voldemort and that you know" he muttered "I am going bed now anyway goodnight" and he left

"Shit he is a bit touchy lately Hermione" Ron said "I had better go see if he is ok" and he left also

"So what about you "Mr all the girls want me" Malfoy?" she asked and laughed

"Nope" he said "I might go stag"

"Me too" she said "nobody would want to go with me after all"

"Why wouldn't they?" he asked

"I dunno, well nobody has asked me" she stated

"Ah I see" he said "well their loss then"

"Yeah I suppose" she said and looked at her hands, she had a habit of doing this when she was upset.

"You will be fine" Draco said and hugged her

"yeah of course I will" she said and smiled at him "anyway I am quite tired"

"Of course" he said "goodnight"

She went off up to bed and Draco berated himself for not asking her

'why would you ask her' he asked himself 'cause I like her' he reasoned 'yeah but not in that way' 'yeah but are you sure' 'NO, I am not sure of anything when it comes to her' 'you love her' 'I do not' 'yes you do' he smacked his forehead and went to bed, stupid subconscious,

The next morning was a Sunday and Hermione liked to lie in on a Sunday. Draco woke up early as he usually did when an idea struck him.

He penned a letter and found Hercules snoozing on his perch

"Here you daft bird, do something useful" he told it as he poked it in the stomach, it opened one eye and glared at him, it then went straight back to sleep

"You imbecilic bird wake up!" he shouted at it

But it was ignoring him now

"FINE!" he shouted at it and set off to the owlery.

He sent the letter with the school owl and went back to his room to kill Hercules.

He went back in his room and Hercules was sat there wide awake and Draco could swear the bloody thing was smirking at him

"That's it I finally think I have gone mad" he said swearing at it and locking him in his cage

"You are going back to the shop" he told it. The bird looked haughtily at him

"Don't believe me huh" Draco raised an eyebrow at it "you cocky little git"

He was on his way out of his room with the cage and saw Hermione sat on the sofa.

"Where are you taking your owl?" she asked him

"to the slaughterhouse" he grumbled

"Draco" she reprimanded "poor bird"

"Well not really I am taking it to Snape to take it back to the shop, he is stupid and wont send my letters" he told her and dropped the cage on the floor

"Draco, you will hurt him and your sulking" she said

"I do not sulk" he said "he is stupid and annoying, yeah that's it I am annoyed" and he walked back into his room, leaving the bird in his cage in the middle of the common room floor on its side,

Hercules hooted dolefully

"Poor thing" Hermione said and picked the cage up, Hercules hooted at her

"Its ok you can stay with me" she told him and took him into her room.

She went down to Draco's room to get the perch he had for him on his desk

She knocked at the door

"Come in" a muffled voice shouted

She entered the room, it smelt really nice as usual, but she couldn't see Draco, then she noticed a big mound of person underneath the duvet

"Draco are you in bed?" she asked

"Yes" he said

"Why?" she asked

"Because woman I am sulking" he said

"Hah I knew it" she said and picked up the perch and left. She had been gone a minute when Draco stuck his head out from under the covers and saw she was gone

As Hermione went back to her room, she noticed a school owl sat on the windowsill

"Well hello" she said taking the letter from it and petting his head

The owl flew off and she let Hercules out and he sat on the perch and went to sleep.

She sat on her bed and looked at the letter. It was in block capitals so she had no clue as to who the author was from the writing on the envelope, the letter read

Dear Hermione,

I was hoping against all hope that you would accompany me to the ball. I have been meaning to ask you for a while but I haven't known how to. If you wish to then please be outside the charms classroom at 6:15 on Friday night,

That was it? Who was it from? Thousands of questions buzzed around her head. She decided if nobody asked her before Friday then she would turn up, it couldn't hurt she supposed

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	14. Chapter 14 The ball

Chapter 14 – The Ball

Friday soon rolled around and nobody had asked Hermione, well Harry had then as soon as he had he changed his mind. They had had a small row because of this. Hermione told him that she didn't particularly want to go with him anyway and then he got really upset. She had only been telling him the truth, she didn't want him to think of her like that. She wouldn't ever be able to think of him in anything other than a friend's way and she didn't like the idea of him thinking of her in a girlfriend kind of way. In fact it made her tummy feel a bit weird. It was like the idea of snogging your brother or something.

So they weren't on the best of speaking terms at the moment. Draco had patiently listened to her whinge about Harry and Ron had tried to stay neutral but it was hard.

They had come to a sort of a truce by the time Friday had come and Draco was glad, it was hard making friends with people and it wasn't easy if they were going to start falling out and fighting soon afterwards.

Hermione went up to her room straight after dinner and started to get ready, she put on her dress and slippers. She then put her hair into a bun and had some tendrils framing her face a little. She applied her make up, she always went for the natural look, and then she looked at the clock it was 6:10 so she ran to the charms classroom. There was nobody there yet so she walked around for a little bit then came back. Draco was stood there wearing a prince charming costume. This was really just a white shirt and black trousers and a small crown. But he looked really nice and he gasped when he saw Hermione

"You look amazing" he told her

"Thank you your highness" she laughed and curtsied at him.

He took her by the arm and they made their way to the great hall.

As they entered they realised nearly the whole student body was already there and they had everyone's eyes on them,

Dumbledore looked up and he beamed at them, his eyes twinkling

"An announcement if you please" he said and all the students quietened and looked up at their revered headmaster

"I would like to thank our heads and prefects for the wonderful decorating they have done of our hall. It is definitely the only time I have seen decorations so carefully thought out. I do hope that you children can understand the meaning behind it" most people nodded, and the people who didn't soon had it whispered into their ears by whoever was stood with them

"I would also like to thank the heads for thinking of having a fancy dress party and letting the younger students attend. This is a first in Hogwarts history and I would like you to give a round of applause to Miss Hermione Granger and Mr Draco Malfoy"

Everybody clapped and there were some wolf whistles and shouts

Even the slytherins were clapping which scared Hermione a bit.

"Now I am sure you all want to get on with partying" Dumbledore said "but I would like to ask our heads if they would care to do the opening dance for the ball?"

Hermione looked at Draco "you can dance cant you?" she asked

"Of course" he looked indignant,

"Ok" she said and pulled him into the middle of the dance floor

Hermione had arranged for a dj instead of a band, the DJ was a muggleborn and had a lot of muggle music as well as wizarding music

Draco put his arms around Hermione and Mariah Carey's "without you" came on

Hermione put her arms around Draco's shoulders and danced with him. They seemed to fit together perfectly and had a rhythm that went together really well. Halfway into the song Hermione rested her head on Draco's shoulder and he leaned his cheek onto the top of her head. They danced for a while and as the song neared the end Hermione looked up and Draco looked down, their eyes met, Draco moved a tendril of hair out of her eyes and she looked at him questioningly

He bent his head down and pecked her on the cheek.

The song stopped and they separated. Dumbledore looked proud and McGonagall and Snape gave each other a quick glance. Hermione could have sworn McGonagall smirked at Snape.

They went and sat down next to Ron and Hannah

"Don't you guys want to dance?" Hermione asked them

"Excuse me Hermione but before I answer, I just want to say wow" Hannah said "you two looked great out there"

"Thank you" Hermione blushed

"Thanks" Draco said

"anyway I would dance but Ron told me he isn't much the dancing type so we thought we would just sit here and get to know each other a bit" Hannah said

"Fair enough" Hermione said "Draco would you like a drink?"  
"I will get them" he said and walked off to the punch bowl. 'What did you go and kiss her for?' he was arguing with himself again 'because I love her' 'in front of the whole school as well' 'so what'

He returned with the drinks.

"So where's Harry?" Draco asked Ron

"He decided he wasn't going to come" The redhead told them

"Shame really"

"Yeah, he got a costume too didn't he" Hermione said

"Yeah" Ron said "I tried to talk him round but he wasn't having any of it really"

The ball flew by and Hermione danced with many of the boys from all houses and Draco danced with many girls.

Then Dumbledore stood again. There was only the fifth, sixth and seventh years remaining by now

"well can I have your attention again then please" he said "I know I am annoying but that's my job, anyway this the last song is coming up next and I would like for our head boy and girl to close the ball, you may all dance as well, I hope you all had a good evening and thank you again"

The last part was directed at Hermione and Draco who nodded in acknowledgement.

They stood to dance to the last song which happened to be Daniel Bedingfields (nothing hurts like love)

They danced in the same position as before, Draco's arms around Hermione's waist and her arms around his neck.

"Have you had fun?" he asked her

"Yes thank you" she said "have you?"

"Yes" he muttered into her hair "more than you could know"

the dance was quite a long one and Hermione looked into Draco's eyes, she loved it when he looked happy the grey flecks in the silvery steel colour looked so warm and inviting, she tilted her head towards him and he kissed her on the lips, it was a slow soft kiss, not like when they had kissed earlier in the year, the thought of that came rushing back to Hermione along with the same feeling she had had back then. None of the other students were dancing anymore they were too busy watching their head boy and girl, they were truly captivating, and to Hermione it felt that her every nerve ending was exploding. He pulled her closer and kissed her with a passion. And then the song ended. They pulled apart and looked at each other, it was a long gaze that lasted a good minute. They then went to say goodnight to their friends. Hermione looked over at the teachers table and saw Dumbledore, he grinned at her and she blushed at him. She also saw Snape handing money to McGonagall.

They made their way up to their rooms and as they entered the common room they saw Harry sat on their sofa. He was drunk

"You YOU!" he yelled at Draco "How dare you, how fucking dare you?" he yelled

"Harry calm down" Hermione said and went to make him sit back down  
he flung his arm out pushing her away from him

"Don't come near me, you disgust me" he shouted

"Harry" Hermione shouted "what on earth is going on?"

"Hermione leave him, I will call for Dumbledore" Draco said

"You bloody would wouldn't you" Harry said

"What do you mean by that Harry?" Draco asked him calmly

"you always have to be the suck up don't you" Harry said "first you suck up to Voldemort then you decide you want to be good so you suck up to Dumbledore, doesn't matter what side your on you will always suck up to somebody"

"That's low Harry" Hermione said "especially from you, I expect better than that"

"Well" Harry said and sat down "who doesn't?, I mean I am the boy who lived, I am a nice boy, I should be nice to everybody at all times, I should never raise my voice and I certainly shouldn't get mad at people when they walk all over me"

"Harry what is this all about?" Hermione asked

"LIKE YOU DON'T KNOW" he yelled

"HARRY JAMES POTTER DO NOT RAISE YOUR VOICE AT ME" she screamed back at him.

"this is about you refusing to go to the ball with me and then going with that slytherin scum and kissing him, yes I do know about that" he told them

"Harry you asked me to the ball and in the same breath took it back. Plus I told you, you are like my brother, I couldn't go with you it just wouldn't seem right" she told him

"And I like Draco"

"You do huh? What's he got that I haven't?" he asked her

"Well when I kiss him it doesn't feel like I am committing incest for a start" she said, she was pissed off now. He was spoiling what had been a beautiful night.

"I see" Harry yelled, "so now for the rest of my life I am to be miserable just because you think of me as a brother, I don't want you to think of me that way. I want you to love me, I want to be by your side everyday, I want to kiss you, and I want to hold you"

"Harry that could never happen, I don't know why you cant accept it and just try and get over it, I cant give you what you want, and I don't see why you cant appreciate that" she said

if it hadn't been for the fact that Harry had just put the complete dampers on a lovely evening for him Draco would probably have laughed at this, there was five foot something Hermione giving six foot something Harry absolutely what for, she wasn't bothered at all, she just gave it to him. And Harry being Harry stood there and took it from the short woman before him

"Harry you need to go and get some sleep now, we will talk tomorrow" Hermione told him and led him by the arm to the portrait.

After seeing Harry off she turned to Draco, she walked up to him and kissed him on the cheek,

"Goodnight" she said and walked up the stairs to her room, just leaving Draco to stand there and watch her retreating figure

"Goodnight" he said


	15. Chapter 15 Perpetual Torment

Chapter 15 – Perpetual Torment

Hermione awoke the next morning to an owl tapping at the window. She always wondered why they had to wake her up, inconsiderate birds, she had let Hercules out last night so he could go hunting, and he hadn't returned yet, no doubt he would be soon.

She reluctantly let the owl in and took the parchment from it.

The letter turned out to be from Harry, Hermione wasn't too sure if this was good or bad news but she soon found out

Dear Hermione,

I know that you probably hate me right now, and I don't blame you. I was a complete utter idiot last night, I am so sorry I was just jealous but I do love you.

I have decided that I can no longer go on with my life, there are too many things in it happening that I can't control and I don't want.

I do not want Sirius to be gone and I do not want to live every day wishing he was still alive. I want to see my parents and know that I never ever can, I want to hold you in my arms and have you tell me that you love me too. I want to be able to defeat voldemort and save the wizarding world but I do not think I can. There are so many things I want and wish to do but can not and will never be able to. I do not want you to feel bad about this, I know you are still trying to come to terms with your parent's murder, but I can no longer live with the way I feel. It tears me apart everyday. I hope you can explain to Ron for me, I just can't bring myself to tell him.

I hope Draco helps you through this. I am sure he will do. He cares for you very much I know.

If you find me and I am not here do not try to save me. I couldn't bear it.

Forever yours  
Harry

He had been crying whilst writing it, she could tell from all the smears on the page.

She gasped and fled to Draco's room, she was hammering on the door, when a rather dishevelled Draco opened the door,

"What's going on?" he asked

"Harry" she shouted "come on"

They ran from the common room, she didn't know where she was going as she didn't know where Harry would have gone, so she ran to his dorm, the rest of the Gryffindor were sleeping, including Ron

"I will wake him later, I just want to find him" Hermione told Draco, she pulled the marauders map from Harry's trunk

"I solemnly swear I am up to no good" she said and tapped it with her wand

All the black lines suddenly filled the page and she looked eagerly for Harry. And then she saw him. Over on the quidditch pitch. But instead of being a big black ink mark, he was a light shade of grey

"Shit" Hermione said and they ran to Dumbledore's office as fast as their feet could take them

She yelled the password at the gargoyle and ran up the stairs as fast as she possibly could. The whole time Draco in his pyjamas running up behind the also pyjama clad Hermione

"Professor" Hermione said as soon as she saw the old man sat at his desk 'did he ever sleep?' Draco wondered

"Yes children?" he asked bewildered to see his two best students out of breath in his office wearing pyjamas

"Harry has killed himself" she told him, she told him about the owl and the map and the quidditch pitch.

Dumbledore called Madame Pomfrey and they all went to the quidditch pitch and surely enough there was Mr Harry potter 'the boy who lived' hanging from one of the quidditch hoops, quite clearly very dead.

Hermione just crumpled into a heap. And Dumbledore summoned a broom and flew up to cut Harry down. Nobody had ever seen Dumbledore on a broom before but they weren't concerned with that now. All they cared about was Harry. Not that it would do much for him now.

Draco held Hermione in his arms, Draco was also crying and he noticed when Dumbledore returned to the ground with Harry in his arms, he was in tears too.

Madame Pomfrey was absolutely distraught and it wasn't a few more minutes until McGonagall and Snape were out there too. McGonagall just burst into tears and Snape had an absolutely unreadable expression on his face. The closest it could be interpreted to was regret, sadness and shock.

Hermione was in total shock. She was shaking and Draco was getting a little worried about her

"Mr Malfoy, you must take Hermione up to the infirmary and I will be up shortly" the Medi witch sobbed at him.

Draco pulled Hermione up by her hand, but she seemed unable to walk. He picked her up and carried her newlywed style all the way to a hospital bed.

"Draco" Hermione whispered between her sobs "fetch Ron"

So off Draco went to wake up the boy he had grown quite close to and bring him to turn his world upside down also. He didn't want Hermione to tell Ron, he didn't want anyone else to be so upset. It was an awful day and when the news of this got out the whole wizarding world would be in mourning, no that's not true, he thought, voldemort would have a bloody party or something.

Draco entered the Gryffindor common room, he obviously knew the password because of hanging out in there lately, and went up to the dorm he had been in only twenty minutes before. He walked over to the redhead and shook him awake

"Huh?" Ron asked groggily

"Quick Ron wake up" Draco said and threw some clothes at him

"Draco why are you in my bedroom wearing pyjamas?" Ron asked him "you come for a sleepover or something?"

"No, you must come to the infirmary quickly" he explained

"Why what is it?" Ron asked as he threw his clothes on  
"I can't tell you Hermione will tell you when you get there" the blonde said sadly

The two boys rushed to the hospital wing and found Hermione sitting on a bed. There was another bed occupied but there were big white curtains all around it.

Hermione was still crying but a lot calmer.

"Madame Pomfrey has given me a potion to calm me down" Hermione explained to Draco. And gestured to an empty bottle sat on the nightstand. There was an identical bottle sat next to this but this one was full of a deep blue potion. Draco knew this would be for Ron

"What on earth is going on?" Ron asked his best friend, she just looked up at him and started crying even harder. She pulled a piece of paper out from her pocket and handed it to Ron, she looked down at her hands and waited.

"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!" Ron shouted "did you find him?"

"Yes" she said quietly "at the quidditch pitch"

"Is he really…" he asked

"Dead? Yes" she told him and pulled him to her. Draco felt a bit pushed out now. He knew that they were more upset than he. And that they had been best friends for a long time but this made him feel like an outsider.

"Why couldn't he have talked to me?" Ron asked, he was beginning to lose it and he was a ghostly shade of white

"I feel sick"

"Here drink this" Hermione said passing him the full bottle of potion, she wanted Ron to be calm,

"I will go and get us some clothes" Draco said thinking he should leave them to have a few minutes alone.

"Thank you" Hermione said. She couldn't stop crying and had stopped trying to.

"Is he in there?" Ron asked nodding at the curtained bed

"Yes" Hermione said "I can't believe he would do this, I know I tried to kill myself but this is Harry, he isn't weak like me"

"I know" Ron said "I just don't understand it all, I can't accept it, and I can't accept this one little bit"

He walked over to the curtains "and I won't believe it unless I see it for myself"

"Ron no!" Hermione shouted but it was too late, Ron had gone round to the side of it and disappeared from her view.

"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!" he screamed,

Hermione ran round to pull him out from there and Madame Pomfrey came rushing in and glared at them.

"You shouldn't be round here" she said,

Hermione had gone to pull him around but was too mesmorised by Harry to move. He looked as though he was sleeping. She wanted to slap him and tell him to wake up, she wanted to stroke his hair and tell him it was ok and she did love him, not as he wanted her to but as much as she was capable of.

She wanted to tell him that everything would be ok. But she also knew it was too late. She took Rons hand and took him back over to where they had been just before. Ron didn't cry, he just stared into space. He felt totally numb. He didn't know what to do with himself. He felt lost. It was like he had lost his right arm. He was in shock and this was when he had had the potion, Hermione shuddered to think what he would have been like if he hadn't drank it.

Draco returned dressed and with a pair of jeans and a jumper for Hermione. He knew that she wouldn't be in classes today. It was more than likely that the whole school wouldn't be if he were honest with himself.

Dumbledore came to the hospital wing half an hour later and looked very sombre

"Children" he addressed them "I am so sorry for your loss, I don't really know what to say. Such a waste of a precious young life. I need to make an announcement at breakfast and I would like for you to be there, I know this will be hard for you but unfortunately it needs to be done"

They nodded and followed him to the great hall. Draco and Ron both were holding her hands. They all walked to the Gryffindor table and sat there, the other students could tell there was something wrong but they weren't sure what.

Dumbledore stood at the podium and the students looked at him. The enchanted ceiling was pitch black there was a major storm coming,

"students, I have some very sad news to tell you today" he said, they all looked at him expectantly

"Today we have lost someone who we will truly miss, Harry potter was a magnificent boy and a good friend and he was truly worthy of the respect that the wizarding world holds for him. But he was a teenager and some teenagers do feel that they can no longer go on with the problems they face and he unfortunately decided to end his life. I know that this was a terrible terrible waste of a life and I am hoping you will all realise that if anything ever gets that bad for any of you, you know that we are always here for you if you need somebody to talk to. After everything that has happened to Harry to go and throw it all away as he did saddens me so. And I hope anyone who feels the need to speak about their grief", he pointedly looked at the three students sat at the Gryffindor table, "will come to me"

When he had said Harry potter the whole school had gasped, McGonagall wasn't there. She had taken it very badly. And a lot of students were now crying. Draco looked over to the slytherin table, a few looked sad, but most just sat there and he glared at them.

Dumbledore strode over to them,

"I have a lot of work to do now, informing the ministry and Harry's family and the such like. I would like for you three to return to the heads common room. There will be no classes today and I do not want you near the hospital wing for the time being. If you have any problems then please seek out professor Snape whilst I am tied up. Unfortunately professor McGonagall has had to retire to her rooms"

Draco nodded at their headmaster and got up. Hermione and Ron followed him. Ron was just blank. He showed no emotion and Hermione was scared for him.

When they arrived at the heads room Hermione just sat on the sofa with her head in her hands. Ron just stared at nothing in particular and Draco just sat there not knowing what to say or do. He was a lot more used to death than these three.

_When Draco had been young he had a nanny, she was so nice to him and his father had found out she had been hugging Draco, there was nothing wrong with this anymore but Lucius had come into the nursery one day to find the young woman hugging a very upset Draco who had fell down in the garden and grazed his knee._

"_What is the meaning of this?" he had demanded_

"_Draco hurt himself" she explained _

"_And this requires this?" he had asked "I thought you were trained in first aid?"_

"_I am sir" she said "I did a healing charm on his knee, but he was a little upset"_

"_No child of mine will be mollycoddled in such a manner" he had shouted and then muttered the killing curse at her. She had fallen down dead, and Draco had cried. To which he had been subjected the cruciatus curse "no child of mine will cry, it is a weakness" he told the small boy and lifted the curse_

_Draco had been three years old._

Draco sent for some tea from the kitchens and poured Hermione and Ron a very sweet tea. "Here it helps with shock" he told them

Hermione took it gratefully and wondered what she would do without him

Ron also took his and muttered his thanks.

They seemed to sit there for what seemed like hours but in reality it wasn't all that long. When mr and Mrs Weasley knocked on the door, Hermione and Ron didn't even acknowledge the knocking and Draco being the only one of sound mind answered it. Mrs Weasley was red faced and had obviously been crying, she pulled her son and Hermione into a big hug and they all cried. Mr Weasley spoke to Draco

"How have they been?" he asked

"Not good" Draco told the older man "I don't know what to do"

"It is a hard situation to know what to do" Arthur said "but sometimes just being there helps"

"Yes sir" Draco said

Arthur Weasley was surprised, he never imagined a day when a Malfoy would call a Weasley sir. It went against everything their families believed in. but he was glad this boy was different from his father.

"You children are coming to the burrow for a few weeks" molly told them "you shouldn't stay here, you need a break"

"Yes mum" Ron said

"Thank you Mrs Weasley" Hermione said  
"how many times have I told you, call me molly" the red headed woman told her

"Sorry" Hermione said "should we pack?"

"Yes dear, you go and do that, I will go with Ron and help both him and Ginny"

And with that she was gone. Hermione went up to her room and started throwing stuff into a bag.

"Hermione" Draco said from the doorway  
"yes" she said and looked up at him. There was a sad look to his stormy grey eyes and that made her feel even worse than she already did.

"I will miss you" he said

"Oh Draco, I will stay if you want, you are sad too" she told him

"No go" he said "It will be good for you"

"But what about you?" she asked him

"I will be ok" Draco said

"Ok, if you're sure" she said and continued packing. Draco walked in the room and sat on the bed.

"I'm sure" he said "I feel so bad for you Hermione, first your parents, then Harry. It seems you are destined for perpetual torment"

"I know" she said "you would think I was a bad person the way all this shit happens to me"

"You aren't a bad person" he said grabbing her hand and holding it.

"What makes you so sure, even I'm not sure anymore" she said "maybe I should have just told Harry I would be with him, then at least he wouldn't be dead"

"Hermione he wouldn't have wanted you to stay with him for that" Draco told her and pulled her to sit next to him

"And you mustn't tell yourself that. You did what was right, it wasn't just because of you it was a collection of stuff, just like he said in the letter"

"I know" she said and put her head on his shoulder "doesn't stop me feeling guilty"  
"I know" he said and kissed her forehead

A voice shouted up the stairs "are you ready Hermione?"

"I'm just coming" she shouted back and grabbed her bag

"Draco" she said turning to him

"Please don't" he said "please just go and be ok"

"I will" she promised "but let me tell you something first"

"Ok what is it?" he asked

"I want you to owl me if you want me to come back or anything, you're hurting too, I know you are" she said

"Ok but I will be fine" he said "Malfoy trait, unfortunately"

"Goodbye Draco" she said and went downstairs leaving him in her room.


	16. Chapter 16 The grieving process

Chapter 16 – The grieving process

Hermione and Ron had been at the burrow for about a week before Ron cried. Hermione was worried about it. She knew it wasn't good to hold in your emotions, and Mrs Weasley watched him very carefully. Hermione wasn't doing well at all. With the loss of her parents so soon before it was just too much for her, she was glad that Draco had found her that day she had tried to kill herself. She never realised back then the effects it had on other people and now she did she felt so grateful to him.

They were all sat down eating dinner one night when Ron was asking Hermione to pass him the butter, and he remembered when they had all stayed there the night before the quidditch world cup and asking Hermione to pass him the butter and Harry had passed it over instead. And he just started to sob. Hermione was glad of this, she knew he needed to let it all out.

He ran from the table not wanting everyone to see him cry and Hermione and Mrs Weasley had followed him.

He had gone out to the garden where they had played quidditch so many times, and sat down at the edge of the lawn his head in his hands crying his heart out,

Hermione looked at Mrs Weasley, she nodded at Hermione, it would be better for her to comfort her son. She was grieving too but nowhere near as much as these two.

Hermione ran forward to Ron as soon as Mrs Weasley had nodded and pulled him into hug and they had cried together, they had cried for as long as they could until they felt they could cry no more.

"Ron I know you loved him, we all did" Hermione said "I cant imagine life without him"  
"me neither" Ron said "what will we do?"

"we will have to learn to live with It Ron" she said gently "there is nothing else we can do"

he nodded and they hugged again  
"lets go inside" she said "its so cold out here"

they went back in and it was the same as it had been all week, miserable faces and hardly any talking, Harry had been a part of this family. Even though he was not related to any of them, they treated him as a son and a brother and Hermione knew it affected them all so much

The next morning an owl came from Dumbledore telling them there would be a funeral for Harry at Hogwarts the next day.

The next day came by far too quickly for them and before they knew it they were walking into the great hall at Hogwarts. Hermione saw Draco and went over to see how he was doing

"I am ok" he said "how are you?"

"some days are better than others" she told him "but that's to be expected I suppose" he nodded

Dumbledore walked into the great hall and Hermione noticed the house tables were not there and there was harrys coffin at the front. There were no seats. Hermione thought this fitting. She thought it better they stand for this

Dumbledore came over to them "Hermione I was hoping you and Ron would perhaps say a few words about Harry in a little while"

Hermione nodded but Ron shook his head and refused "I cant do it, I'm sorry"

Hermione squeezed his hand. "It's ok"

"Thanks" he said

Hannah came over and hugged Ron and held his hand

Hermione followed Dumbledore and Draco grabbed her hand on her way past him and also followed.

Hermione wasn't sure why but now wasn't the time to ask

"ladies and gentlemen, we are gathered here today to remember a young man who gave his life up" Dumbledore started, there were thousands of people there all wishing to say goodbye to Harry

"I would like to have some of the people who knew him best to speak oh him, Mr Draco Malfoy"

some people clapped and some people were surprised, a lot of people had known the rivalry between the two and not many had known that they had become friends.

"I haven't been friends with Harry for a long time" he started simply  
"but in the short time I have been, I must say he was a truly genuine person, and being a Malfoy I haven't really known many of these throughout my life, I will tell you a small story, it was our first day and we were coming to Hogwarts, I was being the little snob my father raised me to be, which caused me to slight Ron Weasley, I tried to make friends with Harry, but because of this he didn't want to know. He stuck up for his friend's even one he had made a couple of hours before. Since then there was always a rivalry between us, I am not proud of this and am glad we got the opportunity to become friends, he accepted me even after everything I had done to him and his friends, he was forgiving and compassionate. He had morals, values and was one of the truest people I have had the pleasure to know. I never really knew what to say up until now, but I will say this. Thank you Harry potter for being a friend and goodbye, you will be missed" and with that Draco stood back and Dumbledore again stood forward, everybody clapped

"now we would normally have had his head of house say a few words but unfortunately professor McGonagall has taken some leave because of this and cant be here today, so instead professor Snape has offered to speak" Dumbledore told them

Hermione was shocked Snape had always belittled all of them, why would Dumbledore let him speak at Harry's funeral?

Snape stood forward and cleared his throat

"Harry potter" he said "was a Gryffindor like his mother and father, he was a exceptional quidditch player and as much as I dislike saying he beat slytherin every time. I know a lot of people do know the rivalry between Gryffindor and slytherin and I know that I have given Harry a hard time on many an occasion. But I am in my firm beliefs that he needed it. He was much like his father in his attitude to things. Which if I am honest with myself is no bad thing. His father was a man of integrity and it was a tragic loss that both james and lily potter should have left there son behind. Now I hope he is with them wherever he is and they are all watching down on us. I know there is a lot of grieving on most peoples parts and I know its hard. But I do so hope you can all move on and instead of commiserating his death, we celebrate this young mans short lived but exceptional life. Thank you"

again everybody clapped

hagrid was crying and looked at Hermione. She looked at him and gave him a weak smile, she knew it wasn't much but it was all she could manage.

"our head girl and one of Harry potters best friends, Hermione granger" Dumbledore said introducing the young woman.

She stood forward and she had tears running down her cheeks.

She looked at everybody looking at her expectantly

She hadn't had time to thnk something up so she was going to just say what she felt

"hi, I have been best friends with Harry potter for just over five years, Harry, Ron Weasley and I were inseparable. We went everywhere together, we had mutual likes and mutual dislikes" she looked at Draco when she said this "I accepted Draco for the changed man he is and Harry being my friend and the unjudgemental person he was followed my lead and soon found a friendship with Draco also. Harry potter is famous here in the wizarding world. But he never enjoyed the fame. He always shied away from it. He always wished it were someone else.

All truth be told I am mad at him for taking his life from us. We wanted to share it with him, we wanted to be there for him and we wanted for him to be able to talk to us. But unfortunately Harry had a lot of things to deal with in his life and it all got too much for him. I cant help but think to myself that it was a terrible waste of such a promising life. I feel as though there is a hole in my heart. I feel as though a part of me is missing and I fee that despite everything the world has to throw at him he could have coped with it all if he had just spoken to somebody. I have always tried to be there for my friends.

There are many times that I wish I could change things that happen. But not like this.

I want to tell you a couple of things Harry potter," she said to the coffin.

"I love you and you will always have a special place in my heart for you no matter what. I lost my parents a couple of months ago. I felt my world had been torn apart and Harry was one of the people there for me. I tried to kill myself too but lucky for me Draco saved me. Why couldn't you have given us time to save you Harry, why couldn't you be more open about how you felt" she said she walked over to the coffin and looked at it. The lid was shut. "Why did you leave me?" she shouted banging on the lid to it. She was crying and hitting the coffin again and again "you bastard" you selfish bastard" she yelled

**ok quite a short chapter this time I know, but I have been feeling rather downhearted really, I appreciate the reviews I have got but I have seen a lot of stories that are only a few chapters with tonnes of reviews. You read it? Then let me know what you think please, and I will upload a much longer one next time. Thanks**


	17. Chapter 17 – Things become clearer

Chapter 17 – Things become clearer

Dumbledore pulled Hermione from off the top of the coffin and held her while she cried. Ron came over and took her from Dumbledore

"Shhhhh" he soothed her and then when he was sure she was better he let her go.

"I am sure there are many other people who would like to speak a little about Harry but unfortunately we can't give that opportunity to everybody. I thank you all for coming and hope that a loss such as this will bring to mind to everyone the danger we face in the future and I ask that everybody bears it in mind and we can all come together again in happier times soon"

And with that Draco, Ron, Neville, Dean, Seamus and Colin lifted Harry's coffin and carried it out to the grave made in a small cemetery on Hogwarts grounds.

Hermione couldn't face this and went back to her rooms.

She sat alone for quite a while when Draco came in and sat with her

"Where is Ron?" she asked.

"He has gone home with his mother" he told her and took her hand

"Why? Why couldn't I go?" she asked

"He needs time to heal Hermione" Draco said

"And they don't think I do?" she asked

"Everybody knows that you do" he explained "but that isn't happening for you at the Weasley's. Dumbledore feels that you would be better off here"

"Oh, I see" she said "it was more miserable there to be honest"

"See there you go" he said and wiped a tear from her cheekbone

they sat there for a couple of hours, neither saying much but now and again Draco would look at Hermione, she just stared at the fire that was burning in the hearth and looked so sad. He just wanted to wrap her up and hold her forever. He didn't want to let her go.

But he knew he couldn't. She blamed herself for Harry's suicide and possibly could do forever. He wanted to be with her so badly but knew he couldn't whilst she was in such a fragile state of mind.

Hermione stood up

"Draco?" she asked

"Yes?"

"Would you do something for me?" she looked up at him through her eyelashes

"Anything" he said and brushed her hair from her face

"Would you cast a memory charm on me?" she asked

"Hermione I cant do this one, everybody else still knows it wouldn't really change anything in fact it could make you feel worse" he told her "you would only have to go through learning of it all again"

"I understand" she said sadly then looked at him again "when did you get to be so sensible?"

"I think you're rubbing off on me" he smiled

"Poor you" she said simply

"no not poor me" he laughed "don't you see, you're a brilliant person Hermione, if I could be like anyone in the world it would be you, your so smart, so pretty, so vivacious, I know you feel a bit lost at the moment and its hard but you are the best person I have met in all my life, so caring, so kind, so generous and so forgiving"

Hermione was shocked, she knew they had grown to be friends but she didn't know he thought that much of her

"Thank you" she said "I think I should go to bed"

"Goodnight Hermione" he said and kissed her forehead

"Night" she said and gave him a sad smile

'You should tell her' his inner conscious told himself

'And be rejected no thanks', 'you don't know that unless you try', 'now is not the time' 'coward'

He sat there arguing with himself for quite some time,

When he heard crying from Hermione's room, he seemed destined to interrupt her nightmares these days

He pushed her door open and she was fast asleep and crying.

"Hermione wake up" he said and shook her slightly

"It's just a bad dream wake up"  
she sat up and looked at him, she wiped her tears away

"Sorry Draco" she said

"Don't be" he said "its not your fault, was It about Harry?"

"Yes" she sniffed "and my parents," they were all lay there dead and I didn't know what to do"

"Are you ok now?" he asked as he usually did

"Yes"

"Ok, goodnight" he said and went to leave

"Draco!" she said

"Yes?" he asked

"Please don't go" she said

"Ok" he said and went to sit in the armchair

"No, please hold me" she asked, so in he got. He pulled her to him, her head was on his chest and his arms were around her tight

She fell asleep eventually and Draco watched her for a while and fell asleep himself

"_Hermione, wont you wait?" he called to her_

"_I can't" she shouted back to him_

"_Why not?" he asked_

"_Why would I wait for you?" she turned round and asked him_

"_Because I love you" he said_

"_You can't" she said "it can't happen, you must find someone else, they would never accept it"_

"_Yes they would, we would show them" he said determinedly _

"_It doesn't matter Draco, it can not be" she shouted_

"_Look me in the eyes and tell me you don't love me" he demanded_

"_I don't love you" she said and stared him straight in the eye, she was shaking_

"_Fine!" he said and turned round and she left_

"NO!" he shouted out

"Draco" Hermione said "you have a bad dream too?"

"Yeah, don't worry about it" he said, he noticed he still had his arms round her

"Its still night, go back to sleep she said and cuddled into him

"Night"


	18. Chapter 18 Longing and hurt

Chapter 18 – longing and hurt

Draco woke the next morning to the sun shining right in his eyes. He grumbled and realised he was holding Hermione still, she was still sleeping, he lay there watching her breathe, he had never noticed she had a few freckles over her nose until now. He liked freckles but all witches he knew got rid of these with a charm because they didn't like them. Maybe Hermione didn't know it

Hah he thought to himself, Hermione not know a charm all teenage witches knew. He doubted it

"Morning" he said as she began to stir.

Her eyes opened wide in horror, and then she remembered why Draco was there,

"Oh morning" she said a little shyly

"How are you feeling?" he asked

"Ok, you?" she asked back

"I am ok too" he said and pushed his hair from his eye. He was still holding her but hadn't realised

"Draco could you let go of me now, I need to go take a shower before classes" she said

"Oh yeah sorry" he mumbled and got out of bed.

She made her way to the bathroom as he went to his room to change

Hermione went and ran a bath, then climbed in. she had put some peach oils into it. This helped to calm her and it worked instantly, she lay in the bubbles and even had a small smile playing on her lips

She was humming to herself when there was a knock at the door

"I am going to breakfast, see you in potions" Draco shouted through the door

"Ok bye" she shouted back 'he was so sweet' she thought

Hermione arrived at the potions classroom at the same time as professor Snape. He pulled her back as she went to enter the room

"Yes professor" she asked

"How are you doing?" he asked her

"Some days are better than others I guess" she replied

"Ok well if you need anything please feel free to come to me" he said,

This shocked Hermione totally and she thanked him telling him she would indeed.

There were rumours flying around the school that Professor McGonagall had retired because she felt so bad that Harry had committed suicide. Nobody had seen her since that dreadful morning, Hermione hoped this wasn't the case as she worshipped the ground her head of house walked on.

Classes went by very slowly and Hermione thought that if it wasn't for Draco she wouldn't make it through the day at all. But he kept talking to her, not even about anything in particular but just stuff to keep her mind occupied. She appreciated it and was glad of the company, she missed Ron terribly as well. It seemed everybody was leaving her, her parents, Harry, McGonagall and Ron. She knew the latter two were still alive but they weren't here were they, and she resented them for that. She didn't want to but she couldn't help it.

Hermione was sitting on the sofa in their common room doing her homework whilst Draco was patrolling, he came through the common room looking rather haggard.

"How was it?" Hermione asked without looking up

"Nobody about" he said "thank god"

"Draco" she said looking up at him "you have done so much for me, and you have been doing everything by yourself whilst I haven't been here. You look so tired"

"I am a bit tired" he said and looked at her "but it's ok"

"If you're sure" she said biting her bottom lip

"Yeah its fine" he said and started on his own homework

By the time he had finished it was two in the morning and Hermione had gone to bed ages ago. He rolled his parchment up and stuck it into his bag. He went to brush his teeth then went to bed. He was so tired but he couldn't sleep. His bed felt lonely and horrible

It was a long night for him.

Hermione slept fitfully, she didn't have any bad dreams, but she didn't sleep well. She woke up in the middle of the night and went down to get a drink, when she noticed Draco's light was on. She pushed the door open and he was lay on his bed staring at the ceiling

"Oh I saw your light on and came to check you were alright" she said embarrassed that he was just lying there awake

"Yeah I just can't sleep" he said

"You should, you need all the sleep you can get, and you have bags under your eyes" she said. She had never seen the slytherin look as pale as he did and she had thought he was about as pale as you could get.

"Thanks" he said "you know I don't comment on your looks in the middle of the night"

She laughed "good job too, I have looked a right state lately"

"I would never insult a lady so" he said sitting up and winking at her

"Mr Malfoy" she said and fluttered her eyelashes

They laughed

"Well I guess I better get back to bed then, I need my beauty sleep after all "she said

"Indeed" he said sticking his tongue out at her

"Charming" she muttered and hit him over the head with one of his pillows

"How dare you" he said pretending to be mad and hit her with another pillow

"Well really" she said indignantly "you want a pillow fight Draco? You got one"

And they started pounding each other with pillows. They were totally relentless and many things got knocked over in the process.

Eventually Draco had Hermione pinned to the bed and was holding the pillow menacingly just a couple of inches from her head

"Now you're in for it" he said and then collapsed

Hermione had tickled him, he hadn't been expecting that

"Why your ticklish" she laughed

"Shhhhh don't tell anybody" he said and stood up "and don't do that again"

"Why not?" she asked and tried again

He grabbed her hands "because I don't like it"

"Ok" she said and stopped trying

"Night Draco"

"Goodnight Hermione" he said and grabbed her arms. He pulled her into a kiss. It was passionate and full of longing. She didn't know whether to respond or not. She knew she cared for Draco, but she didn't know if she cared for him in that way or not

She was kissing him back. Her body wasn't thinking the way her mind was it just reacted to the kiss with as much passion as Draco was injecting into it. He was such a good kisser and she remembered the ball, it seemed so long ago now. Yet only as if it were yesterday then she remembered Harry afterwards and pulled away from Draco

She went to walk out the room

"Hermione, wont you wait?" he called to her

"I can't" she shouted back to him

"Why not?" he asked

"Why would I wait for you?" she turned round and asked him

"Because I love you" he said

"You can't" she said "it can't happen, you must find someone else, they would never accept it"

"Yes they would, we would show them" he said determinedly

"It doesn't matter Draco, it can not be" she shouted

"Look me in the eyes and tell me you don't love me" he demanded

"I don't love you" she said and stared him straight in the eye, she was shaking

"Fine!" he said and turned round and she left

It was just as in his dream, he was shaken by this and sat down. Who were they and why was she denying what he felt from her.

Hermione ran up to her room and sat on her bed crying, what was she doing? She didn't know. She did love Draco, she knew it deep down inside, she felt her heart break when she had said she didn't. She saw the look in his eyes, it was sadness, horror and confusion all rolled into one, and it had bored into her heart.

They wouldn't accept them, not ever.

They being their fellow students. They begrudgingly accepted their friendship but a proper relationship never. And Harry would turn in his grave she was sure of it.

She didn't know what to do. Plus she was scared of losing him seeing as that seemed to happen to anybody she cared about these days. She was frightened to let him in and frightened that she wouldn't be able to give him what he needed.

She was in for a long night, she lay down but sleep evaded her.

The next morning she hadn't hardly slept a wink and got dressed quickly, she went down to the common room Draco was working on some homework, he looked up at her and she met his gaze. He then turned back to his work without speaking to her. She felt awful at this and didn't know what to do, so she went down for breakfast without saying a word.

Draco ignored her all day. Dumbledore noticed they weren't speaking and was rather surprised at this. He noticed everything, he saw that Draco was sitting back at the slytherin table and Hermione was sat with lavender and parvati.

He was saddened by this as they had given him hope on his dream of interhouse unity and now it had taken a major step backwards. He knew he would have to speak to Hermione.

"Miss granger if you could come up to my office when you have finished your meal" he said as he was leaving the great hall

"Yes sir" she said and went back to picking at her food

She finished her meal quickly and was soon stood in front of her headmaster

"Yes sir?" she asked

"Would you like to tell me if you and Mr Malfoy are having problems getting on?" he asked

"We have had a bit of a fallout sir, nothing serious though" Hermione told him

"I see whose fault was this?" he asked

"Mine I suppose sir" she said and looked downcast

"Well I suggest you and Mr Malfoy have a long talk. I feel nothing solves a disagreement like a long heart to heart" he said knowingly

"Yes sir" she said

"Good evening to you Miss Granger" he said and Hermione left.

When Hermione got back to the common room Draco was sleeping on the sofa

"Draco" she said

"What do you want?" he asked harshly

"I want to tell you something" she said softly, she didn't blame him for hating her, she would too

"Yes?" he asked sitting up

"I do love you" she said

He stared at her

"I just am worried about what people would think, and I feel bad to Harry's memory after the last things he said to us" she explained

"Hermione you can't live your life worrying about what everyone else would think. You have to do what makes you happy, otherwise it will come to the end of your life and you will regret so much! He told her

"I know" she said "your right. But it's hard for me"

"I know. I am sorry I have been such a git today" he apologised

"It's my fault" she replied "I should just be honest with myself"

"That's not always easy to do" he said "with everything that happened to me over the summer, I grew up a lot, and now I realise more than I ever did before, so it's a bit easier for me"

"Draco do you think I will ever stop feeling sad?" she asked uncertainly

"One day" he said kissing her gently "one day, I will make sure of it!"

"Thank you" she said and kissed him back


	19. Chapter 19 Ron Returns

Chapter 19 – Rons return

It was a Saturday afternoon and Hermione and Draco were sitting outside the castle underneath a tree on the grounds. It was a bit too cold at this time of year for being sat outside but Hermione had put a warming charm on them both and they were just enjoying being together. All of a sudden they saw a figure walking up towards the castle from Hogwarts gates and as it got nearer they realised that it was Ron, they could only really tell from the red hair

"Ron!" Hermione shouted jumping up and running to him "god how I've missed you"

"Hermione I missed you too," he said hugging her tightly.

"Ron" Draco said

"Draco" Ron acknowledged. Even though the pair were friends they would probably never be close and there was still rather an air of formality between them,

"So how are you feeling?" Hermione asked pulling him over to where they had previously been sat

"Better" Ron said "mum ended up sending me to see a shrunk"

"A shrink Ron" Hermione said "did that help you much?"

"Yeah it did I can even talk about him now" he told her "I still miss him though"

"I know" she said and hugged him.

"Well I need to go and tell Dumbledore I am back "he said  
"ok see you in a bit Ron" Hermione said "just come by the common room whenever you want to"

"Ok bye, bye Draco" and with that he picked up his bag and went inside

"Mr Weasley" Dumbledore said as Ron sat down in front of him, "so glad you have returned"

"thank you" Ron said  
"I am hoping that you are feeling much better now" he asked

"Yes thanks very much" Ron said, he didn't like sitting in the headmaster's office much it made him feel uneasy.

"Your head of house also took this whole situation extremely badly and has not returned to her teaching as yet, so should you feel that you need to speak to anybody please see either myself or professor Snape" Dumbledore said

Ron nearly choked when the words professor Snape were said, he didn't think he would be going there anytime soon.

"Thank you sir" he said and left

He went to the common room to sort his things out and decided after he had done so he would stop by the heads common room to see Draco and Hermione and maybe they could go to dinner together,

He knocked on the door to the common room but nobody seemed to hear him, he could hear giggling coming from inside and remembered that he had heard Hermione use the password before "Hogwarts unite" he told the portrait and the door swung open and to his horror Hermione was sat on Draco's knee and he was tickling her  
"Hermione" he said and stared at her with his mouth wide open

"Ron" she said and jumped off Draco's knee quickly

"What on earth is going on here?" he asked.

Draco just sat there casually looking between the two, he wasn't too sure how this was going to pan out and he didn't want to

Step in too early and end up making a fool of himself and also as Hermione likes to remind him she can look after herself

"Well?" Ron asked "what is the meaning of all this?"

"Well" Hermione said "whilst you have been away Draco and I have found that we care for each other a lot"

"Don't beat about the bush" Ron snarled "are you shagging him?"

"Ronald Weasley!" she exclaimed "I am surprised at you, we are not shagging as you so eloquently put it, however we are a couple"

"I knew it" he said throwing his hands in the air, "it's not enough that your best friend killed himself partially because of you, now you have to go against his memory and against me and go out with him"

"Ron" Draco said "it's not like that at all, Hermione and I care for each other"

"so what, Harry cared for her too and look where that got him" Ron yelled  
"we cant just deny our feelings because Harry couldn't cope with it" Draco said "no disrespect to him or anything, but you know as well as I do there were many other contributing factors that led to his choice, but we cant remain unhappy just because someone who isn't even here anymore wouldn't have liked it"

Ron was getting madder and madder by the minute and Draco was trying to take some of the pressure off of Hermione but it didn't really seem to be helping all that much.

"Ron come and take a walk with me" Hermione said "I will be back soon Draco, don't worry"

Draco shrugged he knew there was no sense in trying to talk her out of it, that would just antagonise the situation.

Ron followed Hermione out of the portrait and they went for a walk around the lake

"Why would you do it Hermione?" he asked

"Why would I do what Ron? Deny myself happiness because my friend was selfish" she asked "yes Ron, don't stare at me all open-mouthed like that, he was selfish, he didn't think of the pain any of us would go through, he didn't think of the fact that the wizarding world no longer stands a chance without him. He felt bad and gave in and now because of that you want me to be miserable too, well I cant and I won't"

"You did it too" Ron said quietly "or had you forgotten"

Hermione felt the tears come to her eyes, "no Ron I had not forgotten and since I tried to kill myself I have not stopped thinking I am so glad that Draco found me, I was so mad at first that he had saved me I just wanted to be dead. But since then I have realised a lot of things. I have realised that it's the most selfish thing you could ever ever do, I have realised that although my life is pretty much a shambles I don't have to deal with it all on my own, and that I am not the only one who is suffering, and you know who taught me all that? Draco"

Ron just glared at her "you know what Hermione I don't care, they way I see it your shaming Harry potters name and he would be turning in his grave if he had seen what I did, and I am almost totally sure the whole wizarding world will see it that way also, Hermione Granger, 'the girl who didn't care'

"Ron" she said begging him to talk to her, to accept what she was trying to say

"No Hermione I can never forgive you for that" he told her and walked away

Hermione returned to the common room and found a note from Draco

Hermione,

I have gone down to dinner as I am ravenous and I wasn't sure how much longer you were going to be.

See you shortly

Love Draco

Hermione sat down on her couch to think. She was glad in a way that Draco wasn't here she needed time to think on her own, she needed to be away from Ron and him. Maybe what Ron said was right, maybe everybody would see her that way. What should she do? She didn't know. Perhaps she should split up with Draco and just try and forget her feelings for him. That would appease Ron and lessen her guilt for Harry.

Yes she decided eventually that was going to have to be the solution. She didn't really see any other way around it. Sure Draco would be furious but there were other girls. Her heart saddened at this thought. She didn't want to think of Draco with other girls but what else could she do?

Hermione washed her face to get rid of the tell tale signs of her crying and went towards the great hall to get something to eat. As she walked through the door, she immediately looked for the blonde head of Malfoy and she soon found it over at the slytherin table. She didn't want to upset Ron anymore so she went and sat beside him at the Gryffindor table.

"Hermione" He said curtly as she sat down.

"Ron I need to talk to you" she said, he looked deep into her eyes, he saw a lot of sadness and knew she was planning on breaking up with Draco

"I understand" he said

Draco winked at her as he stood up from the table to go back upstairs, she gave him a weak smile. And he noticed she looked pale. She had been crying. Course she had tried to hide it but he could tell. He noticed everything about her, he always had. He decided to go and get a pepper up potion for Hermione from Madame Pomfrey for when she got back in case she was feeling a little under the weather.

Ron and Hermione finished their meals, well Hermione didn't really but she had finally tired of pushing her food around her plate.

They left the great hall and Ron found an empty classroom for them to talk in

"So have you made a decision?" he asked

"Yes" she said sadly, "your right I know you are, I just haven't been thinking very clearly lately with everything that has happened"

"Well I am glad to see you're coming to your senses" Ron said and hugged her

"Have you told him yet?"

"No she said "I am going to tell him tonight"

"Good" Ron said "and you know you don't have to be alone, Harry wouldn't have minded if you and I were a couple"

"Ron I err I dunno" Hermione said  
Ron held her hand and wouldn't let her go "Hermione I care for you, I always have. Go and talk to Draco tell him your decision then think about it ok"

Hermione nodded meekly and left

She cried as she ascended the stairs 'What was a girl to do?'

Hermione entered her common room and found Draco doing his homework

"hey" he said standing up and coming over to wrap his arms around her  
"Draco no" she said and pulled away "I can't do this, he's right, he is right about everything, what was I thinking?"

"Whoa" he said "you have lost me but I don't like the sound of this very much"

"Ron he told me what everybody would think of me, he told me what I was doing to Harry's memory. I don't want people to see me that way" she cried

"Hermione, Ron is being stupid and trying to force us apart" Draco said and tried to console her but she kept pulling away from him

"Draco he is right, I know he is" she said, she was beginning to sound a little hysterical.

"Hermione snap out of it" he said and forced her to sit down, "you are not doing yourselves any favours, you are going to make yourself ill, getting worked up like this"

"Anyway it doesn't change anything" she said standing up, she turned round to him and said "I can't be with you Draco, we are not meant to be"

He immediately remembered the dream he had had, so long ago

"Hermione I must be able to do something to change your mind" he begged "I love you, I love you more than life itself, I love everything about you and I need you"

"You need me?" she asked

"Yes" he said firmly "without you there is nothing for me, it is you that gets me through the bad times and you are the light amongst my dark, showing me the way. If it weren't for you I don't think I could have carried on this long, and if you leave me then I don't think I can carry on at all. You complete me" **(A/N very Jerry Maguire I know but still good)**

Hermione looked at him, he was right they needed each other they had helped each other so much and despite everything she loved him with all her heart. If it meant losing Ron then so be it. After all he hadn't been there the last month when she had needed someone. Draco had he was always there for her.

And with that she resolutely decided to tell Ron that no matter what she needed Draco and he along with everybody else would just have to accept that no matter what.

She snuggled up to Draco thinking how glad she was that he had persevered and not just given up at the first time of trouble for them.

And they fell asleep there in the common room.


	20. Chapter 20 Another Prophecy

**I would like to thank you all for your reviews, I love it when I get reviews. It makes it all seem so worthwhile.**

**The story should start getting a bit more intense now, what can I say I love drama**

**Well read, enjoy and don't forget to review! Thanks**

Chapter 20 - Another Prophecy

The next morning Hermione and Draco went down together for breakfast. They were holding hands as they usually did and when Ron saw them his face went a crimson colour and Hermione went and sat at the slytherin table with Draco. It was never really fun to sit there as they still put up with a lot of glares from the other slytherins but they had taken to keeping their mouths shut which is more than could be said for Ron, Hermione knew he would be furious when she finally had to talk to him and did not relish the moment that would happen.

It was a Sunday so there were no lessons today thankfully which meant Hermione would be able to speak to Ron and he would have a bit of time to calm down before the next day. It would soon be Christmas break anyway and Ron would no doubtedly be returning to the burrow. Hermione and Draco were to both stay at Hogwarts as they had nowhere else to go really.

After breakfast they left the great hall and immediately on doing so they were accosted by Ron

"I thought you were dumping him?" he said to Hermione grabbing her arm.

"I can't" she said

"Why not?" he asked her and turned his fierce gaze upon Draco

"Because I love him" she said, there were tears in her eyes from where Ron was hurting her.

"Weasley get your hands off her" Draco said. He was quickly getting annoyed at Ron and he wasn't one to keep his mouth shut in a situation

"I will do no such thing" the red head snarled "she is my best friend"

"Well if that's the way you treat your friends I would love to see how you treat people you don't like" Draco said and pulled Hermione from him. She was openly crying now and holding her sore arm.

"Ron" Hermione said "I need Draco and he needs me, I am not going to break up with him, no matter what you say. And I do not want to be with you, I couldn't"

"Be with him?" Draco scoffed and then turned on Ron "you said all this just to be with her? You sicken me"

Ron glared "she would be better off with me"

"like hell she would" Draco said and stood in front of Hermione "so what happened you went home all sad about Harry and went to see this psychiatrist and what told him you were in love and he filled your head with junk as to how to win her over?"

Hermione was startled that Draco even knew what a psychiatrist was but then remembered that he took muggle studies and they had covered that in their last year.

"He just told me what I needed to do for myself" Ron said trying to defend himself

"He talked crap. Find your own girl" Draco said and pulled his wand out at him "or I will be forced to deal with you"

"Oh please" Ron said and laughed manically, "she will come to see, I know she will"

"Ron I think you need some help" Hermione told him  
"then leave him and help me" he said

She looked into his eyes, they weren't like they normally were they were darker and his pupils were so small she could barely see them. He also had a bit of a crazy look to them.

Hermione was scared for all of them.

"I think you should talk to Dumbledore" she said "we will come with you"

"What on earth do I need to talk to that old coot for?" he shouted "he has gone flipping mad I will tell you. He told me to see Snape if I had any problems. The whole bloody world has gone mad"

"Ron as head girl I am telling you to go and see the headmaster" Hermione stated putting her hands on her hips "and if you don't go of your own free will then we will escort you"

"Make me then" Ron said and within a second Hermione had him in a full body bind and was levitating him towards Dumbledore's office.

They entered the office and Hermione removed the curse from Ron

"See what she did?" Ron asked Dumbledore  
"I do indeed but I also know that miss granger would not do that without a good reason" he said eyeing the redhead over his half moon glasses.

"Well professor" Hermione began "I believe Ron is still not emotionally well"

"He's not right in the head" Draco added

"Tactful Draco" Hermione whispered to him

"Thanks" he said and smirked

She rolled her eyes at him.

"Well I will give Mr Weasley and evaluation then" Dumbledore said

"Just wait till I tell my mother" Ron said

"I will be informing her, she might like to be here for it" he told him.

And with that the heads left the office and walked back towards their common room.

"You think he would find out some more facts about it rather than just be like, ok then I will sort it out" Draco said

"Oh come off it" she said knowingly "Dumbledore knows everything, he will know what Ron was saying and everything"

"Yeah I guess so" Draco agreed and they went to read, Hermione couldn't concentrate and ended up just pacing around the common room for a long time. Draco got fed up of watching her in the end and decided to go for a nap.

Meanwhile upstairs Mrs Weasley stepped out of the fireplace and walked over to an empty chair in professor Dumbledore's office

"Well what's this all about Albus? I am quite busy you know" she snapped, it had not been a good time for her lately. Ginny still wasn't back at school and she was trying to be so strong for everyone it was taking its toll on her good nature a lot.

"Molly" he said and smiled at her "it seems that Ron doesn't seem quite back to his old self and some people are concerned for him"

"But that person that st mungos recommended said he was fine now" she said and looked rather confused

"I am fine mum" Ron told her

"Well you see this is the problem and I am going to do an evaluation on Ron, and I wished for you to be present"

"I see" she said "and just how is this evaluation carried out?"

"Well unfortunately I need to do some legilamency on him and enter his mind" he told her "this should tell me all I need to know"

"Very well" molly said and sat back in her chair

"Mum" Ron shrieked "you aren't seriously going to let him just invade my mind are you?"

"Yes Ronald I am" she said "now be quiet"

And that was that. Ron was to endure his mind being prodded and probed by the aged gentleman that stood before him.

An hour later Dumbledore had finally reached his opinion.  
"please forgive me it is very tiring to do that, Ron however should feel no side effect from it at all" he said as he sat down in his chair

"Mrs Weasley I feel that Ron should be checked into st mungos he is not in his right state of mind and I feel he needs to be put on an anti-psychotic course" he told her seriously

"I beg your pardon?" she said not quite believing her ears.

"I am sorry molly, there is some dark in there and its trying to take him over, we must deal with it before it gets out of hand" he said "Ron I am very sorry but you must do as I say otherwise there will be no help for you and I would say in probably less than a year he will more than likely be in Azkaban"

"Come along then Ron" molly said wearily standing up "thank you Albus"

"I am sorry" he said and watched the mother pull her son into the fireplace

Draco had just re-entered the common room from his nap and Hermione was sat at the desk staring into space

He went and put his hands on her shoulders and kissed her on the temple

"Hey" he said

"Oh hi" she said "do you feel better for that?"

"Yes much" he said "any word from Dumbledore yet?"

"No nothing" Hermione said "but its time for lunch so I think we should go"

"Ok" he said and they left for the great hall, as they neared it they spotted Dumbledore just entering,

"He must have finished then" Hermione said

"Yes he must, perhaps he will tell us after lunch" Draco said and squeezed her hand.

Hermione in some ways hoped that Ron would not have anything wrong with him. But she didn't want him to act that way if he was fine so in that case she was hoping there would be something wrong with him. It was far too confusing and she knew that yet again her appetite had abandoned her.

They ate in relative silence and then when they went to leave Dumbledore called them over

"Please come through here" he said and they went into the little anteroom that led off the great hall

"Yes sir" they said and followed him obediently

"Unfortunately Mr Weasley has had to leave us again. You were very right miss granger, the darkness is taking over his mind" he explained

"How does the darkness get in?" she asked

"Unfortunately at times off loss and severe emotional trauma. It can be a trigger to the dark that is in there already only people who can fight it stand a chance really. There has never really been a truly light wizard or witch with absolutely no darkness in there mind at all. This is why it is able to spread because it is always there in the beginning lying dormant beneath the mind. In Mr Weasleys case his grief has triggered it and he hasn't the will power to keep it back" he told them

"Then how come I didn't suffer the same?" Hermione asked "after all I felt"

"well there are two possibilities to this" the old man said "one is that having Draco with you to help you cope was strong enough to help you, or with you being a muggle born there is little dark within your mind already, or it could be this there was a prophecy many, many a year ago that said

_one day a truly light witch would grace our world with no darkness in her mind, she would touch the lives of some who are lost and put their troubles behind, she would lessen the sorrow of that which we feel by helping to destroy the one who has killed, she will help the warrior to prepare for his fight, with an intelligence that overpowers any fight. _ To this day we have been waiting for her and we could never have any way of knowing who she is, so we have been hoping that she would come to Hogwarts, with Mr Potter's prophecy we assumed that she would be the same age as he and help him to prepare for his fight. We have wondered for a while if this was you miss granger, would you mind if we found out?"

"I don't mind professor but I find it very difficult to believe" she said

"How do you test it?" Draco asked, his father had told him this prophecy many years ago and until now he had quite forgotten it.

"There are two ways" Dumbledore said "I can either enter miss grangers mind using legilamency as I did Mr Weasley or I can ask her to touch this instrument I bought with me"

He showed them a tiny silver orb, it was translucent and it looked very precious

"What does that do?" Draco and Hermione asked in unison

"The person touches it with their palm. It will fill with a liquid, it goes golden for the light and black for the darkness. Most people are 1 third black and 2 third gold. Your father did it once when he was at school Draco and it was almost totally black the only person I know of that was completely black was tom riddle. Although once it was full tom was surrounded with a black aura and he was as surprised as we all were at this time"

"Ok professor" Hermione said

"Draco I would like you to touch it for me also" Dumbledore said "in fact could you go first"

"Ok" Draco said and laid his palm across the top of the orb, "hey you didn't say it stung"

"It shouldn't sting" Dumbledore said and looked a bit bemused

"It's stopped stinging now" Draco said as liquid started to fill the orb

"Usually the light fills it first" the headmaster said as gold started filling the orb. Dumbledore was quite pleasantly surprised when Draco's full orb was a quarter black and three quarters gold.

"Very good Mr Malfoy" he told the young boy. "that is the same as I got when I have done it"

Draco beamed at this, he was happy he wasn't very dark like his father

Hermione squeezed his hand and smiled at him.

"Your turn" he told her

The orb had emptied itself again now and Hermione stepped up to it nervously

"Ok" she said and put her palm on it. It didn't sting her it felt nice and relaxing to her, as soon as she did so it started filling, but not with gold, it was with a beautiful shimmering silver liquid, and it did not stop until it was full. And then she still felt compelled to hold her hand on it and Dumbledore exclaimed when he saw a brilliant silver aura surrounding his pupil.

"Miss Granger I believe the prophecy speaks of you, you are a perfect match for him" he told her

Draco was surprised "I thought you said it was gold, what's silver?"

"I am not too sure about that Mr Malfoy but I feel that silver is a light colour so it is nothing to worry about however I shall owl the man that made this and speak to him about it just to be sure" he told them.

"we will need to speak again soon and try to devise some plan as we no longer have the same strategies open to us." He said

"Ok" they agreed and left. Hermione's head was spinning "oh my god!" she said to Draco as they made their way back to their rooms "I don't believe it, me a lowly muggle born the truest light witch ever?"

"Better believe it" he said and grinned at her

Neither of them could quite get over this at all. Draco was just happy that he wasn't evil and Hermione well she was too overawed by it all for it to really make sense to her.


	21. Chapter 21 Christmas

Chapter 21 – Christmas

"Good morning, Miss Granger" a happy voice sang in her ear waking her up  
"well good morning Mr Malfoy" she said smiling up at him "and would you mind telling me why you are in my bedroom?"

"Because it's Christmas day" he said "and I want to open my presents"

He then proceeded to jump up and down on her bed  
"get up!" he yelled pulling her duvet away from her

"Ahh" she said and grabbed her wand and put a warming charm upon her "it's much too cold for that"

She grabbed her thickest robe from her wardrobe and placed it round her shoulders and went through to the common room.

"PRESENTS" Draco yelled and went and sat right next to their Christmas tree

"You are such a kid" she said rolling her eyes at him. And sitting beside him.

Hermione didn't have very many presents at all this year, Mrs Weasley had sent her a jumper and some homemade fudge, she had sent Draco the same. Then they just had their presents for each other

"This is too weird" Hermione said, "nothing from Ron or Harry, or my parents" her bottom lip trembled as she spoke and Draco kissed her

"It's ok" he said "my presents good, open it"

And with that he passed her a large present wrapped in silver paper with purple bows and ribbon on it. The tag said

My Light

And she ripped the paper off and it was a box made entirely of silver, with little pictures engraved into it all over. It was a big box about the size of portable television. And it had a charmed lock upon it.  
"it will only open on the insertion of your wand" Draco told her

"How did you get it to do that?" she asked him

"I borrowed it when you were asleep" he confessed

"It's lovely" she said and put her wand into the lock on the front and the top popped open.

There was an array of things inside it. There was a book about the orb of matheusar, Draco had found out the name from Dumbledore and it had a locket in there that he had been to knock turn alley for. Inside it was space for pictures as normal. And whoever's pictures you put into it would instantly be protected by your love.

Much in the same way as Harry was protected by his mothers.

There was a photograph in a frame of Hermione and Draco, which he had gotten from that annoying boy in Gryffindor

"And you can put anything you want to keep safe in there" he told her and kissed her forehead.

"They are amazing" she told him and kissed him back

"Time for yours"

She passed him a smaller present "it's not as grand as yours I am afraid" she told him

He opened it and could not even believe his eyes. It was a small golden pocket watch similar to the clock that Mrs Weasley owned but it only had Draco and Hermione hands on it. It would tell Draco wherever they were at the time. It had school, home, work, mortal peril and some other stuff on it.

Draco was instantly in love with it. "It's fabulous"

"I am glad you like it" she said and kissed him.

"Merry Christmas" he said

"And merry Christmas to you" she told him and hugged him tightly.

They put their new presents away and it was soon time for their Christmas dinner. They were the only students that had stayed and so it would just be them and the professors. So they would sit at the head table with them.

The table looked very festive and there were Christmas crackers in all the place settings

"Cool" Hermione said "I love crackers"

"Me too" Draco said "but I refuse to wear that ridiculous hat"

"Draco" Hermione frowned "you have to everybody wears them, you don't want to look miserable do you"

"Miserable me?" he said "Malfoy's do not look miserable not ever"

"Malfoy's don't do much do they" Hermione said laughing at him. Whenever he said Malfoy's this Malfoy's that Hermione took great pleasure in making fun of him.

They started their meals once Dumbledore had wished everybody a happy Christmas. And a lovely meal it was. Once everybody had had their fill, people got up and started to leave.

"Can I please take this ridiculous object off my head now please?" Draco whined to Hermione

"Ok" she said pulling the lime green Christmas hat off him and pushing it into his face.

"Gee thanks" he said

"Excuse me" Dumbledore said "but before you disappear could I have a word with you both?"

They nodded

"Follow me" he said and they followed him up to his office.

"You may be wondering what this is about?" he asked

"The orb?" Hermione asked

"And I should of course known that you would probably have realised" he said smiling. His eyes were twinkling

"Did you find out about it sir?" she asked her eyes were burning with the look she got when she wanted to find out information

"Indeed I did" he said "I received a reply from matheusar just yesterday, we found out what the silver means and we also found out something else"

"What?" Hermione asked she was bursting to know and didn't want him to beat about the bush with it.

Draco held her hand and squeezed it slightly, which calmed her down a little bit.

"Well the silver means that the prophecy is definitely about you. The other thing we found out is the reason instead of gold is because the light in you is totally pure, because it can never change into dark. There is always the chance with people that the gold can turn into black. But the silver is immune to it and can not change. So you could never be dark" he explained

"Does this mean I will have to fight voldemort?" she asked

"I think it means you will end up fighting with him in the end" Dumbledore said "what was supposed to have happened was that you would be at Harry's side throughout the battle, however now that can no longer be the case you will just have to train as a fighter as well. So you can play Harry's part as well"

"Could I not do that?" Draco asked "I could probably learn to fight as well as Harry could and probably a little better than Hermione will"

"I am afraid not Mr Malfoy" Dumbledore said shaking his head. "Unfortunately we have other plans for you"

"When do I get to know what these plans are then?" Draco asked

"When the time is right" The aged headmaster told him. "But the time is not right yet"

"I understand" Draco lied. He did not understand and thought Dumbledore was just brushing him off. He was going to talk to Hermione about it later on.

"Well thank you sir, just one more question" Hermione said "who is going to train me to fight?"

"I think I will get Remus to do it" Dumbledore said "He can privately tutor you"

Hermione was excited at the prospect of seeing Remus Lupin again. He used to be their DADA teacher. But he was a werewolf and had, had to leave the school after their third year. But he was close to Harry and he was working within the order.

They went back to their common room after that for there wasn't really anything else to be doing for the rest of the day. Hermione was reading the book that Draco had given her and he was sat there stroking her hair as she read extracts from the book to him.

"Everyone who is employed as an auror, so that they can be tested for darkness" she said

"Are you scared?" he asked her suddenly

"Scared?" she said "I will have you know us Gryffindor are brave"

"Really" he said and raised an eyebrow

"Petrified if I am totally honest with you" she said and a shiver ran down her spine

"You know I will fight with you no matter what Dumbledore says don't you" he told her

"I think you should wait and see what Dumbledore has planned for you first, before you go saying that" she answered

"God damn it" Draco said hitting the arm of the sofa "I hate this, I hate the fact that someone has plans for me and wont tell me what they are"

"Calm down Draco" Hermione soothed "Dumbledore is just doing what he thinks is best. I am sure he will tell you soon"

The night wore on and eventually it was time for the young couple to go to their beds. Hermione kissed Draco goodnight and went to brush her teeth. Draco waited patiently for the bathroom and gave her another quick kiss as she came out and went upstairs.

After that Draco decided to call his head of house using the fireplace. He wanted to talk to him about all this. He knew he could trust Snape and that if Dumbledore was doing the right thing Snape would assure him of this.

"Hello Draco" Snape's head appeared in the fire "what can I do for you?"

"Well I was hoping you might be able to put my mind at rest about Dumbledore really" Draco explained, he then went on to explain about Dumbledore's future plans that he wasn't sharing.

"Well Draco to be totally honest with you there is a bit of controversy within the order at the moment regarding that" Snape told him "not many of the order, including myself agree with the plans regarding you"

Draco was a bit shocked at this information  
"what will happen if not everybody agrees?" he asked

"It doesn't really make any difference as Dumbledore has the final say on everything anyway. We just want to make sure he hears all out opinions and everything before he makes his final decision, we might be able to talk him out of it" Snape said

"Wow, must be some serious stuff then" Draco said and wondered "I don't suppose ……"

"No Draco I can not tell you, it's more than my life's worth" Snape said "sleep well"

"Night" Draco said and put the fire out, and went to bed to have his usual disturbed sleep.


	22. Chapter 22 – It all comes out

**Thanks for the reviews people greatly appreciated as always. Hope you're all still enjoying my story. There is still a lot more to come. So keep reading and reviewing. Thanks again**

Chapter 22 – It all comes out

The Christmas break seemed to literally fly past, the next thing they knew they were back in classes, Ron was still in saint mungo's getting better. Mrs Weasley owled Hermione asking her to write to Ron as he was better enough that he could receive letters now.

Hermione didn't really want to as Ron had scared her, but he was her best friend and she had to hope he would soon be the same old Ron again.

One Wednesday morning Hermione was getting ready for classes when she heard a loud bang come from the common room, it was Draco he had collapsed and was in the middle of the floor. Hermione levitated him immediately and ran to the hospital wing.

"Madame Pomfrey" she shouted as she directed Draco over to the bed  
"what is it dear?" she said coming from her office

"Its Draco I heard a bang and rushed down to find him like this in the middle of the floor" she hurriedly explained

"well fetch Dumbledore" the nurse told her and set about checking Draco all over to see if she could determine what had happened.

"Ok poppy, how is he?" Dumbledore asked her

"Not very good" she said and shook her head. "I can't actually find anything wrong with him, but he seems to be gradually getting weaker and weaker"

"I see" the professor said "Ms Granger could you please go and inform the teachers that yourself and Mr Malfoy will be excused from classes for the time being"  
"yes sir" she said and obediently left

Snape slammed through the hospital doors, his robes billowing behind him  
"I told you about this Albus, I warned you" he said in a tone nobody would dare dream of talking to Dumbledore in usually

"We didn't know if it was certain" Dumbledore told him "and we couldn't just let him go ahead with it unnecessarily could we?"

"But he could die" Snape shouted "it isn't right and I will not stand by and just watch this happen"

"You have no choice Severus" the older man said, his twinkle was completely gone and he looked angry.

"You are out of your mind" Snape snarled "and I am not standing around and doing nothing, I will put a stop to this one way or another"

"And just how do you propose to do that?" the headmaster said

"I will think of something" the potions master glared at him and stormed out

"What on earth is going on?" Madame Pomfrey said

"Not much poppy, Mr Malfoy's destiny is being shaped is all, just see he gets better" Dumbledore said and strode out

"Gets better?" she muttered "there isn't anything actually wrong with him"

Hermione came back a little while later

"how is he?" she asked

"No change really" the Medi witch told her "I just wish I knew what it was, I think professor Dumbledore might know but he didn't say"

"I will go and ask him then" Hermione said and stomped off to the stone gargoyle

"Come in Ms Granger" Dumbledore said "what can I do for you?"

"What is wrong with Draco?" she asked and sat down

"It is a small matter of his heritage" Dumbledore told her

"How do you mean?" she asked. She could tell he wasn't going to give away any information involuntarily

"well you see when a Malfoy is born he is baptised, but he is baptised in the blood of the dark lord, and when he reaches a certain age he is to join the dark lord, if he doesn't do so then there are serious consequences, now Mr Malfoy should have taken the dark mark three months ago. But he has changed. This has never happened in the Malfoy line before not even once. They are the most powerful pureblood family in the wizarding world, wizards across the globe both fear and respect them. They have a handbook on being a Malfoy that has been passed down from generation to generation. It tells them everything they should and should not do. How to behave, how to feel. But because Draco did not take his dark mark. He is getting weaker and will deteriorate slowly. He will not wake up now until Severus has given him a potion containing some of the dark lord's blood"

"That's disgusting" Hermione thought aloud

"Indeed" Dumbledore said "however because of this problem it means that if Draco doesn't take the dark mark within the next few months he will most probably die"

Hermione just stared at her headmaster in shock

"No" she said "not him as well"

"There is a way around this Hermione, which is what I have been trying to tell them. Draco could go to voldemort and request to join his ranks as is his destiny and take his mark, which would cure him entirely"

"But surely voldemort knows that Draco has turned to the light, doesn't he?" Hermione asked

"No he does not, Severus has made a number of excuses for Mr Malfoy that seem to have been accepted, the only trouble is getting the blood to make the potion, so that Draco can be awake to get the dark mark. Voldemort doesn't really like giving away his blood so much"

"But surely if professor Snape tells him that he needs it because of this then he would?" Hermione asked

"Yes but then he may also think that Mr Malfoy is only getting the mark to cure him, which he would be. Voldemort is evil and cruel, but he certainly isn't stupid" Dumbledore replied shaking his head

"Well surely you will find a way?" Hermione asked hopefully

"I truly hope so" the old man sighed

Hermione sat with Draco for most of the day trying to think of a way to help him. It wasn't much use as she didn't have much knowledge on this sort of thing.

She soon decided a trip to the library might help. Most likely the information she would be after would be in the restricted section but as head girl she would be able to get access to it from Madame Pince.

Draco was still unconscious but in his sleep visions of the dark mark and voldemort came to him. It was haunting in its way and he shivered and sweated, he let out a few small whimpers and Madame Pomfrey held some water to his lips to wet them for him. This seemed to calm him down a little but apart from that there was nothing she could do.

"god this is useless" Hermione said to herself as she slammed the umpteenth book she had looked at back on the shelf, she decided to take a trip to see professor Snape, he might have an idea on what to do.

She made her way down the steps to the dungeon it was quiet now as dinner was over and all the students would be in their common rooms.

Snape was stood over a cauldron which was giving off a lot of steam and frowning greatly, Hermione knocked on the door  
"yes?" Snape said and didn't look to happy

"I was wondering if there was anything I could help with to make Draco better?" she asked quietly

"I don't know" he told her "I really don't, I am lost as to where to get this blood from to be honest and I don't think he has much time left, Dumbledore isn't helping matters either"

She was shocked at his honesty and realised it was because it was Draco,

"Does he not have any relatives at all?" Hermione asked

"Not that anybody knows of, although you wouldn't admit being related to voldemort if you were would you?" he asked and let out a small chuckle. She smiled at that

"No I suppose not" she agreed, "I don't suppose a relatives blood would work anyway would it?"

"Not unless it was his direct descendant" Snape said "and I know for a fact he never had a child"

"Shame" Hermione said "I just don't know what to do"

"I will think of something" Snape said "even if it kills me"

Hermione frowned, "what if we got someone to sneak into a death eaters meeting and get some, and they could apparate away again straight away?"

"It wouldn't work, you can only apparate into a meeting, you cant apparate out again until the meeting is over" Snape said "I already thought of that"

"It's a shame he didn't need anyone's blood" Hermione began "Madame Pomfrey got loads from that time when we did our medicals at the beginning of school"

"Hermione granger" Snape said "you are a genius" he kissed her on the head and smiled

She just stood in shock and gawped at the professor

"Your right Madame Pomfrey has a small vial with blood from every student from when they begin school" he said "including one Mr Tom riddle"

"Brilliant" Hermione said and they both ran up to the hospital wing to visit the nurse

"You shouldn't be running in here" the nurse scolded as they came in

"Sorry" Hermione said

"Poppy" Snape said "where do you keep the blood samples?"

"In the room through there" she said and looked confused

"I need one" Snape said  
"who's" she asked "Draco's?"

Snape didn't wait about to answer her though he went through to the room and Hermione followed him.

There were rows and rows of vials all containing blood and they seemed to go back for miles, they looked for the year that Snape said they needed and Hermione found it

The vials were arranged in alphabetical order and they soon found tom riddles,

"This is it" Snape said holding it up, the blood was magically frozen so it wouldn't deteriorate

"How long will the potion take?" Hermione asked him

"it should only take a few hours it's a relatively simple potion its just the acquiring the blood that's meant to be the hard part. We were lucky" he told her.

With that he left to make the potion and inform the headmaster that he had found the blood

"Ah I thought you might eventually" Dumbledore said "didn't think you would have so soon though"

"You mean you thought of it but never told me" Snape snarled

"well some things you have to work out on your own" the aged man said  
"and what if Ms Granger hadn't reminded me of the blood store, would you have just left the boy to die?" he asked, he was getting really mad now

"of course not" Dumbledore said "I would have told you I just am trying to prolong the day that mr Malfoy receives his mark, I know its selfish but I cant bear to think of it"

"I understand" Snape said he was cooling off now, but still thought something was odd

"Ms Granger eh?" Dumbledore's eyes twinkled "never met anyone as clever"

"Even yourself?" Snape asked

"If I was as clever as she is at her age" Dumbledore continued "I would be a damn site cleverer now, she is really going to be something when she grows up"

"Indeed" Snape agreed "anyway I must go my cauldron needs to simmer for a while"

Snape worked in his office mixing, stirring, adding ingredients and such like, he only added half of the blood not daring to use it all incase of a mishap. The potion seemed to take on a black gunky substance. "About bloody right" he said and poured some into a vial.

Hermione was sat with Draco holding his hand and talking to him even though he probably couldn't hear her.

Snape walked purposefully into the room and Dumbledore closely followed him

"Is it ready?" Hermione asked

"Let's hope so" Snape said and passed the potion to poppy

"Fingers crossed" Dumbledore said

Madame Pomfrey administered the potion to Draco and they all stood and watched….


	23. Chapter 23 Thank God

**Thanks again for the reviews, greatly appreciated yet again.**

**I would just like to comment on the review that shirlyn4eva left me, if you don't like that kind of story why choose to read it a D/Hr fic could never be in character as obviously it just wouldn't happen so for all intents and purposes it must go out of character. You don't like it don't read it. Sorry! But thanks again everyone who left valid reviews keep up the good work!**

Chapter 23 – Thank god

Draco spluttered and sat up quickly, he opened his eyes and looked in shock

"What the hell?" he screeched

"Draco calm down" professor Snape said "it's alright"

"What happened?" he asked his voice more steady and his paleness becoming back to its normal self rather than the grey he had been looking a moment before

"I think we need to have a bit of a talk" Dumbledore said and conjured up some chairs around his bed

"It's ok Draco" Hermione said and held his hand

"Right well you know you are a Malfoy" Dumbledore said and Draco nodded but rolled his eyes

"I was aware" he said sarcastically

"Anyhow when you were baptised it was using Voldemort's blood" Dumbledore said "and you were meant to receive your dark mark three months ago, you didn't and so you were in a coma of sorts, only a specific potion could revive you. But this had to have Voldemort's blood in it also"

"How did you get that?" Draco asked "hey voldie give us a sample?"

"No we happened to have some of tom riddles blood stored as we have every students" Snape said "Hermione gave me the idea"

Hermione blushed and looked at the floor.

"And so now we need to prevent this happening again" Dumbledore continued "if you don't receive the dark mark in the next two weeks it will happen again"

"I don't want it" Draco said firmly "is there a way around it?"

"No" the potions master said quietly "the only way around it is to receive the dark mark"

"but I cant, I don't want to be a death eater" Draco said he was furious  
"Draco it's the only way" Dumbledore stated "you can be useful to us in a similar way to professor Snape"

"You want me to be a spy?" Draco asked incredulously

"Yes" Dumbledore said

"he will kill me in moments, I can not do occlumency" the young man said  
"Severus can teach you" Dumbledore said  
"no he can't!" Draco shouted "I can not physically do it, something to do with my father, he made it impossible for me to be able to do it"

"What?" they all asked in shock

"when I was young he put all manner of curses on me" Draco said "he never told me what they were until a couple of years ago when he was blind drunk and told me all the things he had done to me, he made it so I couldn't do that, so that I couldn't lie to him, amongst other things"

"Evil man" Hermione said she was very mad by now "so now what?"

"I don't know" Snape said

"So now we get Draco his dark mark and hope that voldemort doesn't use legilamency on him" Dumbledore said "you will die if you don't so it won't make a hell of a difference"

"You what?" Draco shouted at the headmaster "do you not care at all?"

"Of course I care, but it's important and we must" Dumbledore said sternly "accept it Draco it is your fate after all is it not?"

"It was" Draco said "I thought I had changed it"

"Some fates can not be changed" Dumbledore said and stood up

a few hours later Draco was discharged and him and Hermione were curled up on a sofa in their common room

"I just don't understand" Hermione said "why is he so hell bent on you being a spy for them when Snape already does that?"

"I don't know" Draco said "but I am going to find out"

he stood up and left

"Come in" Snape said as Draco knocked on his office door, his professor and head of house was sat at his desk with a glass of fire whiskey looking somewhat forlorn

"How can I help you Draco?" he asked

"Why does Dumbledore want me to spy on them so much?" Draco asked

"I think Voldemort's getting twitchy about me" Snape said "I assume Dumbledore thinks if you take over he might not figure it out"

"Well I am pretty sure he will kill me pretty soon" Draco said and sat down opposite him

"Maybe" Snape said "maybe not, you are Lucius' son, you are from the great Malfoy family. You do not know good, you are born from evil"

"Thanks" Draco said

"no I don't mean you are, I mean that is how he will see it" the professor said

"Oh I see" the younger one nodded

"I don't want to see you dead Draco" Snape told him "but I don't want to see you like them either"

"I know" Draco said quietly "I just hope I am strong enough"

"Me too" Snape said "I will have to arrange your initiation as soon as possible"

"Hasn't he wondered why I haven't been yet" Draco asked

"I told him that you were grieving your father's fate" Snape said "he seemed to buy it and gave you extra time"

"I see" Draco said "well set it up and let me know, I need to prepare myself mentally for this"

"I understand" Snape said "goodnight"

Draco went back upstairs and Hermione was asleep on the couch.

He picked her up and carried her to her room, he lay down next to her and held her for all he was worth, what was to become of him? What did the future hold? He wished he had all the answers but deep down he knew nothing. He only knew that he loved the girl in his arms more than anything in the world and if he didn't have that he might as well be dead.

The next morning there was a message on that tablet, beeping away for all it was worth

"Bloody hell it's like six o'clock" Draco swore as he went over to look

'Draco,

Come to my office as soon as you get this

Snape'

Was all it said, so Draco hurried to get dressed and went running off to the dungeons, 'what is this all about?' he wondered

But he wasn't left wondering for long, when he arrived he noticed Snape was sat in his chair again and looked awful, he looked as though he hadn't even been to bed and he had been drunk and cast a sobering charm upon himself

"Draco" the professor greeted him  
"hi" Draco said and sat down again

"I have received word back from voldemort, he wants to do it tonight" Snape said

"Tonight?" Draco made an odd choking sound

"Yes" Snape said "I think he needs someone now Lucius is no longer there and you being his son and all"

"I see" Draco said "well I will remain off classes today and prepare"

"I understand" Snape said and bid him away

When Draco went back upstairs he heard Hermione in the shower, he was going to make her take the day off too and help him.

"Hermione" he said as she came out of the bathroom in her school robes "you have to stay here today" he hugged her tightly and she looked at him concernedly

"What's wrong?" she asked

"I have to go tonight" he told her

"Tonight?" she was shocked "wow he moves fast"

"Yes" Draco said "I don't have a good feeling about this at all"

"There must be a way you can block your mind from him" Hermione said "we will think of something"

"Good luck" he said and ordered them some breakfast "I doubt we have time"

Hermione left for the library after breakfast to look for some sort of charm or potion that could be used, she looked for hours until she found something

'The occlumation potion

This potion lasts for exactly four hours, it is similar to occlumency and withholds your inner mind from a certain individual, and you must use something of theirs to bind this potion to them'

It went on with a list of ingredients, it would only take two hours to make and Hermione was hopeful that their professor would have the ingredients. She rushed to him and showed him the book

"Of course" he said "nobody has used this potion for years, it was easier to learn occlumency as it can block anyone, but if we use the remainder of his blood we should be able to buy Draco a few months until voldemort trusts him at least"

"Thank god" Hermione said and went back to be with Draco

She told him all about the potion

"You are the cleverest person ever" he said happily and kissed her

"You will make my head swell" she giggled and kissed him back

They just sat around and chatted for a while, Draco was nervous and Hermione was scared but they tried to push it to the back of their minds and try to enjoy being together,

"Well I had better go now" Draco said standing up

"Draco" Hermione said standing up as he went to open the door

"yes?" he asked

"I love you, be careful" she told him

"I will" he said "I love you too" and with that he was gone


	24. Chapter 24 Initiation

Chapter 24 – Initiation

Draco and Snape flooed from Snape's office, they were both dressed in black and Draco was trying to remain calm. The professor had given him the potion to drink before they had left and Draco hoped against all hope it would help.

They entered Voldemort's chamber, it was as dark as you would expect, it had torches burning from the walls and a black marble floor with matching pillars.

There was a dark wood throne at the top of the room upon which voldemort sat. There was about a hundred or so death eaters milling about the room. All their faces were covered in their masks. Snape had his on also the only person that didn't was Draco. He would receive his after he had proven himself worthy of becoming a death eater.

They headed towards voldemort and he looked at Draco. Draco immediately felt a prickling sensation in his head. He could tell that voldemort was trying to see inside. It soon stopped as he realised he would see nothing.

"I see you are harbouring no wish to kill me" Voldemort said, his voice was snake like in a way and it made Draco's hairs stand on end

"Indeed I am not" Draco said his voice firm and his eyes impassive

"Good good" voldemort said "your father was a fine death eater, one of the best I can only hope you will follow in his footsteps"

"I will do my best my lord" Draco said and bowed

"Very well" voldemort said "then let us begin"

The death eaters all stood in lines to watch the initiation

"There is a manner of different initiations that I choose to use. However I have one that was thought up by your very own father especially for you" Voldemort told him

"I feel honoured my lord" Draco lied. He hated this, it made him feel sick and yet at the same time he felt the power that emanated from this evil man.

"Nott bring forward the mudblood" Voldemort yelled

Draco immediately thought of Hermione and thought they must have kidnapped her, he soon realised it was just a random mudblood that they had captured for this purpose

"You realise that creatures such as this should not be in existence, that we will do anything within our power to rid the world of Muggles and mudbloods, they do not deserve to live in the same world as us. They are not fit to call themselves human" he snarled

"And as a death eater it will be upon you to help our cause, to serve me and to act upon my wishes, to take the lives of these mudbloods and to make them wish they were never even born"

"Of course my lord, my father taught me" Draco said

"Yes" voldemort said "well then you know what you have to do"

"Yes my lord" Draco said and turned to the girl, she looked terrified and she was dirty. Her hair was brown and her skin was pale. She had freckles like his Hermione did. He knew he could never tell her about this she would never forgive him. Yet he had to, he had no choice after all. It was either kill or die himself. And he really didn't want to die

"Crucio!" Draco shouted pointing his wand at the girl. She writhed in pain and she screamed

"More more" voldemort shouted gleefully

"Crucio" Draco said yet again.

This time the girls screams were a lot louder and her body twitched in pain a lot more

"Excellent" voldemort commented

Draco hated this and he knew he would have to kill her soon.

"Do you know any other spells that could cause her pain?" voldemort asked

"Yes my lord" Draco said wishing he hadn't been asked

"Do one then" he was ordered

"Strangulis" he ordered his wand. Immediately the girl's hands gripped her throat so hard her knuckles were white. Her eyes were wide in fright and she was strangling herself. She couldn't control her hands at all and she would eventually kill herself if the spell wasn't finished.

"Very imaginative young Malfoy" voldemort praised "you may finish her off now"

"Avada Kedavra" Draco yelled strongly, anything to put this poor girl out of her misery.

A green light flashed from the end of his wand hitting the girl straight in the chest, she now laid motionless, her eyes wide open and staring at Draco. He had never killed anything before, he was in a way kind of grateful he had been able to as not many people his age could cast the killing curse. It was the one spell you had to really mean to be able to perform. Of course he hadn't wanted to kill the girl, but it was so important that he did it, that it worked anyhow.

"Congratulations Malfoy, you are now to receive your dark mark" voldemort said and beckoned him towards him. "Come"

Draco stepped forward and lifted his sleeve revealing his pale fore-arm

Voldemort touched his wand to Draco's arm and muttered a curse, all of a sudden there was a shape appearing on his arm, the shape of the dark mark obviously, it was painful and Draco cried out. It was burning

"Snape you may return the boy to his school. Don't forget to let me know if you learn anything, you too boy" Voldemort ordered and with that they left.

As they arrived back in Snape's office, his teacher turned to him

"You did well Draco, I am sure he was convinced"

"I can't believe I killed that girl" the younger one cried

"I know its hard but at the same time it's the most valuable thing you could do in front of him. Most people just have to pledge their allegiance, offer him something. But with you being lucius's son. He had you kill" Snape told him "it will be ok Draco, you did what you had to do"

"You must never tell Hermione" Draco said determinedly

"I wouldn't dream of it" Snape said "you had better get to bed"

And with that Draco left and his professor got out his favourite fire whiskey

Draco said the password and entered their common room, Hermione was sat on the sofa staring at the door

"Hi" he said

"How was it?" she asked "was it awful?"

"It wasn't the best" he told her "I need to go to bed, I'm really tired and it's been a long night  
"oh, ok" Hermione said and kissed his cheek "I missed you"

"I missed you too" he said and kissed her on the forehead "goodnight Hermione" and with that he went into his room and Hermione just stared after him until she heard his bed creak. She went to her own room and got into bed cuddling her pillow to her

She was scared that Draco was going to withdraw from her. That he was going to get tangled up in all this and it would change him. But she knew it was something he had to do. Otherwise he would die. She couldn't bear it if he died, so she would try to be strong for him.

"_Draco" she said uncertainly, the black hooded figure turned to her_

"_Yes mudblood? Did you want something?" it snarled at her_

"_Draco what is going on?" she asked, tears pouring down her cheeks_

"_The dark lord is coming, he will wipe mudbloods and Muggles from our precious world, making it clean and pure" he said_

"_Draco no, you don't really mean that" she cried "I love you!"_

"_Love is a weakness" he stated and turned back round to the first year muggleborn that he had cast Crucio on thirteen times already_

"_CRUCIO!" he bellowed, he knew they were beyond help now. The most times anyone had been able to be under the Crucio spell and still remain normal was eight and that was a fully grown adult, this small child had no chance. It would be a vegetable and it would be completely useless. So now he would kill it_

"_Avada Kedavra" he shouted and pointed his wand yet again_

"_NOOOOOO!" Hermione yelled and dived in front of the younger student and the green light hit her and she crumpled to the ground._

_Draco stared at her and then turned to the first year he had brutalised_

"_This is your entire fault" he shouted "Avada Kedavra" he killed them that time. He turned to Hermione and stared at her_

"_I'm so sorry" he said "I am so so sorry" he heard some other death eaters coming they walked to him "good job" one of them said _

"_Thanks" he said weakly. He went to follow them Hermione's body lay in their path and it was kicked to the side_

"_Sorry" he whispered again as they left that part of the school_

"AAAAAAARRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHH!"

He shouted, he woke up sweating and very scared, 'just a dream' he thought, 'thank god' but what if it came true like his other dream?'

Well he decided that it wouldn't because he would never let that happen, not ever. He was simply a spy not truly a minion of voldemort

Hermione had heard Draco screaming in his sleep and rushed to his room. She stood outside a moment before she went in

"Draco are you ok?" she asked

"Yeah just a bad dream is all, sorry I woke you" he told her

"Its ok" she said "I wasn't sleeping very well anyhow"

she walked over and sat on the edge of his bed  
"you know I love you right" she said  
"of course I do" he said and held her hand

"Then you must know that I am going to be worried about these meetings I cant help it. But I understand if you don't want to talk about it" she said and hugged him to her

He wrapped his arms around her and cuddled her back  
"I appreciate that" he said "but its hard and I don't feel ready"

"Ok" she said "I understand, well goodnight" and she got up to go, she had her hand on the door handle

"Hermione…."

"yes?" she asked, she thought he was going to ask her to stay with him  
"goodnight" he said and smiled at her

"Night" she said and left


	25. Chapter 25 Subtle Changes

Chapter 25 – Subtle Changes

Weeks flew past and Draco had attended a few death eater meetings, he always came back very quiet and didn't want to talk to Hermione about it. After a day or so he would be back to his usual self and Hermione was glad, she hated it when he returned from those meetings. She had taken to being in bed now when he returned as it did hurt her that he seemed to push her aside. She knew it wasn't intentional and tried to imagine what it was like for him but realised she would never be able to imagine. So she tried to carry on as normal and not let it get in between them.

"So you want to go to Hogsmeade tomorrow?" she asked Draco as they sat at breakfast

"Sure" he said "Why not?"

She smiled at him. He smiled at her and gave her hand a squeeze. He hated the way he was hiding the meetings from her and yet he knew he couldn't tell her that he had been forced to kill that girl and that the meetings drained him and that he was scared that he would be turned from her

"hey" she said and prodded his arm  
"sorry" he said "day dreaming"

"I just asked if you were ready to go to class" she told him

"Yeah" he said "sorry"

"Its ok" she said and smiled at him

They left for classes and the day flew by yet again.

The next morning Hermione dressed in a pair of jeans and a purple sweatshirt 'no sense in freezing' she thought to herself as she put her trainers on,

Draco was just getting dressed in his own room. He wore a pair of jeans and a green woollen polo neck.

"morning" he said and kissed her as he walked into her on the way out of his room  
"mmm good morning to you too" she said and grinned

"So you ready to go?" he asked

"Yes" she said and grabbed her bag from the couch where she had left it.

They made their way down to the carriages and found one easily most students ate their breakfast before they left but Draco said they should have breakfast at Hogsmeade for a nice change,

When they arrived they went to a small café and ordered themselves a continental breakfast consisting of croissants, orange juice and suchlike.

They ate and talked a little about how their classes were going and unimportant stuff like that.

"You know I'm stuck there, don't you?" Draco asked pretty out of the blue.

"Sorry?" she asked not understanding what he was referring to

"With voldemort" he whispered "until someone defeats him. There's no way out"

"Draco we will do something it just takes time and planning, I don't want you there any longer than you have to be" she said

"I know you don't. I was just saying" he said and ripped a croissant in half. He offered half to Hermione

"Thanks" she said taking it and starting to spread it with some blackcurrant jam.

"Its just I hate it so much and I feel like I am not the person I was" he said

"How do you mean?" she asked

"I mean that I just feel sad all the time, I feel like something bad is going to happen to us and I feel like I am going dark" he told her

"You aren't" she said "if you were you wouldn't care"

"Your right" he said and smiled at her "as usual"

"Don't worry Draco we will sort something out" she told him confidently

"Let's hope so" he muttered

They went to flourish and Blotts next, Hermione's favourite shop. Where she browsed the books for a little while, before buying one about past death eaters and their missions. She wanted to know what Draco was going through and if he wasn't going to tell her she would have to find out on her own, course she could ask Snape but she doubted he would tell her. Draco would have asked him not to.

Draco bought himself a diary. He had never kept one before. His father would have been livid if he had but he felt that he needed to write his secrets somewhere.

Soon after they were walking along the street hand in hand when Draco clutched his forearm.  
"I have to go" he said "I'm sorry"

"Its ok you go" she sighed "I understand"

"See you later" he said and pecked her cheek

He went to the three broomsticks and used the floo there.

Hermione got a carriage back to the school and went to bed and started reading her book. It was quite graphic with some of the descriptions of some of the horrors death eaters had inflicted upon the innocent.

Meanwhile

"Malfoy" Voldemort said as his newest recruit entered the marble hall

"Yes my lord" Draco said bowing

"We have a matter of importance" Voldemort told him "it concerns a witch, she was a death eater and she ran away. We have found her and we now insist she is killed"

"Yes my lord" Draco said "who is it?"

"Narcissa Malfoy" voldemort sneered "and you will kill her"

"My mother?" he asked "why do you want me to kill my own mother?"

"Because she was traitorous to us and she deserves to die" he told him

"I understand that, but why me?" Draco asked again

"Because it will prove your loyalty to me more than anything else could" voldemort said sternly

"I see" he said, he couldn't kill his own mother could he?

Then he would die, he wanted to be with Hermione what else could he do. And his mother wasn't exactly an innocent.

He would have to do it. He had no choice

He looked over at professor Snape. Hidden by his mask shook his head at Draco. Did he mean for him to not do it? What will happen if I don't? He looked at Snape again and Snape nodded his head vigorously. Draco didn't realise voldemort was looking at Snape and that he had no choice but to nod his head to him.

"Bellatrix, fetch Narcissa" voldemort ordered

"Yes my lord" the female death eater said and left to go to the dungeons

"I hope you are ready for this" voldemort cackled "it will give me great pleasure to watch this"

Draco took a deep breath, his mother had disowned him near enough she had shown she didn't care about him, but then it had been hard for her after all Lucius had done to her. Hermione really wouldn't forgive him for this. She must never ever find out.

"Narcissa" Voldemort snarled at the woman that was dragged into the room. She was filthy and she had been badly beaten that much Draco could tell. She looked at her son and gasped.  
He tried not to meet her eyes but the harder he tried the more impossible it seemed and at they met he saw a mixture of fear, anxiety and defiance. She was a proud woman, well as proud as Lucius would ever let her be. And she was clearly begging him to spare her

"Do it Malfoy, Do it NOW!" voldemort shouted

Draco looked at voldemort and then back at his bedraggled parent.

"Draco please" she whispered

"Mother" he said and took a step closer

"Please don't Draco" she begged "I didn't deserve this, after everything we have been through"

"Malfoy" voldemort said impatiently

"I'm sorry mother" Draco said "I must serve my lord"

His ashen face turned to a hard stony gaze as he withdrew his wand and muttered a quick Avada Kedavra. And she was lifeless.

"Why didn't you torture her first?" voldemort demanded to know

"You told me to kill her" Draco replied "you didn't ask me to torture her, and as willing as I am to prove my loyalty to you, I would not torture my own mother unless I was specifically asked to do so" Draco answered firmly

"My mistake" Voldemort concurred.

"You may all leave"

Draco and Snape returned to the school a few moments later and Draco just stood there staring into space

"Come on" Snape said "it's not as though you were close"

"Maybe not" the younger one said "but I don't have the chance to change that now do I?"

"No but do you think you ever could have?" the professor asked

"No maybe not" Draco pondered "I am the worst person in the world, I killed that girl and my own mother purely to keep myself alive I am not worth one life let alone two"

"Draco you are very important to this fight and sometimes people will get hurt in the crossfire it can't be helped, I was trying to tell you there was nothing you could do about it but then realised you mistook my shaking my head for telling you not to do it. Sorry if I confused you" Snape said "come have a drink, I think you need one" he poured them both a glass of fire whiskey and they sat there in silence for a good half hour before Draco decided he had better go and see what Hermione was doing after all dinner would have only just finished. He hadn't understood why voldemort hadn't saved it for night time like he usually did but he didn't give it too much thought. He just hoped he could lie to Hermione. He hated lying to her it tore him up inside but he didn't have a lot of choice. So he told himself he was doing it to protect her.

He found her curled up on the sofa in their common room reading a book that she hastily put away when she saw him arrive.

"Hey" she said and looked at him "are you ok?"

"Yeah" he said "no rest for the wicked"

"Draco that's not funny" Hermione said and stroked his cheek  
"what did he want you for?"

"I don't really want to talk about it" he told her

"Oh ok I understand" she said, she clearly didn't understand and it was blatantly obvious it hurt her but she tried to remain collected she didn't want him to see her upset. They were so intent on not hurting each other, inside they were crumbling without the other knowing about it. But someone knew. After all didn't Dumbledore know everything well of course he did. But he was biding his time as he told Fawkes "soon fawkes, soon it will all come to light"

Hermione and Draco ordered some food from the kitchen but neither of their appetites were really up to it. "I have to go and patrol now" Hermione told him and kissed his head as she stood up

"Who are you patrolling with?" he asked

"Seamus Finnegan" she said "he is standing in for Ron"

"Oh ok" he said "I'll see you later then, take care"

She headed towards the exit  
"and Hermione" he called out

"yes?" she asked turning to look at him  
"I love you" he said and smiled at her

"I love you too" she said and blew him a kiss and with that she was gone

Draco lay on his bed for ages asking himself a thousand questions

'Was he worth all this?' 'Did Hermione mean that much to him?' 'What good would come from it all?'

Of course the more he asked the less he knew it was too much for a mere sixteen year old to take in. he wasn't an adult that felt like light years away.

He decided to write in his new diary that was in the bag Hermione had bought back to the castle for him.

Dear diary,

I don't know if I have to write that or not, I have never written a diary before. So I will put it just in case. I am Draco Malfoy, I am an orphan since today, I am 16 years old and I love Hermione granger with all my heart and soul. Hope she never reads this she might work out how soppy I am. Life has been difficult for me these past few weeks. I was forced to become a death eater because basically my life depended upon it. However since doing that I have taken the life of two people. I will not name them as I don't really fancy snogging with a dementor anytime soon. But the way I see it is my life isn't worth the lives of two people surely. I think something somewhere went wrong with this almighty plan and I have no way out. I am stuck and I am beginning to feel if I stay stuck for much longer I will lose myself. I can feel myself slipping already and I am scared.

I have never admitted to being frightened of anything before but now I have admitted it I feel a little better. I can never tell Hermione what that sadistic bastard has made me do. She would hate me and I don't want that. But at the same time I want to tell her so I don't have to bear this burden alone. Well I guess that's what you're for dear diary.

I only hope she gets strong enough to defeat him soon then I can be free as I should be.

Snape helps me quite a lot but I don't think he truly understands how I feel about it. After all he originally became a death eater through choice. Not like me.

I think Hermione is back I am going to go see if she can make me smile. Nobody does like she does

D.M

Draco went back through to the common room where Hermione was taking off her cloak.

"So were there any miscreants perusing the corridors?" he asked

"No not tonight it was almost all quiet" she told him

"Only almost?" he asked arching an eyebrow

"Well peeves decided to chase us a little way and sing some songs about Harry" she told him and whimpered a little

"That bloody ghost" Draco said and hugged her to him "it's ok"

"Yeah I know" she said "what have you been up to anyway?"

"Oh not much" he said "I had a shower and then sat and pondered life and the world"

"I see" she said "do you feel better now?"

"Better?" he asked

"You were quite clearly upset about something earlier on" she said "I don't want to push Draco but I don't want you to shut me out completely"

"I am not pushing you out" he said "I just need time to myself after those loathsome meetings, I can't help it. It's just the way it is. I hope you can understand"

"I understand Draco, of course I do" she said holding his hand and perching on the end of the couch.

"I love you and I know you need your time. But I just feel like your trying to hide something from me. I know its only because your trying to protect me Draco but it just doesn't feel right" she kissed his hand and looked up at him  
"I know" he said "and I suppose maybe in a way I am, but you do need protecting, you are very important"

"Ok" Hermione sighed she didn't want to start an argument and she knew this would do. So she backed down quietly and hoped she had given him some food for thought.


	26. Chapter 26 Training and Feelings

**I would like to thank everyone who has waited patiently for this update and apologise for my complete idiocy :D and I implore you please read and review. I am nearly on 100 reviews now and it's getting exciting. Thanks again and please enjoy**

Chapter 26 - Training and Feelings

Hermione went to her nightly training class at the room of requirement. It lasted from seven until nine in the evening. And then it was time for patrol. She was working very hard and was becoming tired quicker because of it.

Draco was still moping around their common room and she wasn't too sure what to do about him.

She didn't have any physical training tonight thank god, it was defence against the dark arts with Lupin, who had come in only to train Hermione. The rest of the students couldn't work out why he was there and so whispered rumours ran amok around the castle. A fair few of them to do with him and professor McGonagall which Hermione found highly amusing and passed onto the teachers. She got on really well with all of them and they enjoyed teaching someone with such an eager and quick mind.

Hermione had just been practicing a couple of minor hexes on some spiders. She didn't mind spiders, it was a good job as well. Lupin seemed to have thousands of them.

"You are doing very well Hermione, I think we might be able to start practicing the unforgivables soon" Lupin praised her

"I don't want to use them" Hermione shuddered at the thought.

"I know you don't and most people never want to either, but you are going to have to. It's the only way. You wouldn't last five minutes against him without them, I am sorry I don't meant to sound like I am being hard on you" he told her and sat down next to her "its just cold hard facts I am afraid and its better to face them now than later"

"I know" she said "you're right I know you are"

"Good girl" he said and got up "I think we can call it a night for now, and back on Friday?"

"Ok" Hermione said and grabbed her bag and wand. "Bye"

She made her way back towards the common room and told a group of second year slytherins off for picking on a first year Hufflepuff

"That's 10 points each off for slytherin" she said "why can't you pick on somebody your own size"

"Oh shut it mudblood" one of the smaller slytherins said, an older one whispered something in his ear, all Hermione could make out was the words head and girl. The slytherin went bright red. He legged it mumbling something that sounds like an apology,

"Get back to your common rooms" she ordered

And with that they all ran off

She then escorted the Hufflepuff back to his house and lectured him on roaming about corridors in the school on his own at this time of the evening. She then began her patrol.

She was patrolling with Seamus again and he had gone to do the other half of the castle. She was just roaming the corridors and thinking about things,

She knew about what she would have to face and all the rest of it. But it didn't seem real, it seemed like a dream away or rather a nightmare. It seemed like a story that somebody had told her and she wasn't looking forward to the day it all became a reality.

But in another sense she couldn't wait. She wanted so badly to get Draco away from him, she had only just told him the other day if he was worried about becoming dark then he wasn't. But she did doubt it slightly, what if it was happening and Draco was just more aware of it than most. He wasn't exactly in a normal scenario was he?

With that thought she was suddenly feeling even more depressed than before.

All of a sudden she rounded a corner and collided into Seamus,

"Oops I am sorry" She said and helped him up

"No problem" he said brushing himself off. "Well that side was all clear, so let's call it a night shall we?"

"Yeah" Hermione said wrapping her cloak around herself a little more "its cold and I am tired"

Upon arriving at the portrait to her common room a fresh wave of exhaustion washed over her and she struggled to remember the password. The portrait took pity on her and gave her a clue

"Thanks" Hermione said and went inside.

Draco was writing in his diary as she went in. he finished the sentence he was writing and closed the book

"You look really tired" he said

"Yeah I am" she told him and walked over to give him a hug "training and then patrols is taking it all out of me, let alone classes and the rest of it"

"Well I could take your patrols if you want" Draco offered

"No its ok" Hermione smiled "I will be fine, plus I need to do it"

"Ok" he said and held her hand "if you change your mind though…."

"Yeah I know" she said and kissed him on the cheek. "I think I should go to bed now though"

"Yeah that's a good idea" he said and walked over to the stairs with her "I'll see you in the morning"

"Goodnight" she whispered and kissed him. He kissed her then held her back from him. Looked deep in her eyes and then kissed her forehead.

"Goodnight precious" he whispered into her hair.

After she was gone Draco went back to his diary. He hadn't written much in it yet at all. He read what he had written so far.

_Dear Diary. _

_Well it's another day and I don't feel any better. In fact I feel as though someone has taken a ten tonne weight and dropped it on my heart. It's difficult to explain really._

That was as far as he had gotten so far. But he felt the need to continue. So he picked up his quill

_I feel such a love for Hermione in its way it's quite sickening. Not in the fact that I don't want to or anything but more the fact that it scares me how much love I feel for her. And on the other hand I feel such a hatred for voldemort and the other death eaters, I fear that if I listen to my heart I will get myself killed in their company and If I listen to my head then I will break Hermione's heart. I wish there was a book that just told me what to do. So I didn't have to make choices anymore although I didn't make this one. All my life I have had decisions made for me, and I couldn't bear it. And now I have the chance to make my own I don't want to. Ironic isn't it?_

_I have the feeling that something is going to happen soon. I am not sure why it's really just a hunch I just hope that Hermione is ready for it. I can't help her with it. I would know too much and if there was a chance he could find out it's just not worth it. Its best for us to be apart in that sense._

_Well goodnight for now dear diary_

_DM_

He locked the book and put it underneath the pillow on his bed. He felt better after writing it. And for once he had an undisturbed full night of sleep

The next morning Hermione awoke to a crazy beeping noise and she couldn't figure out what it was at first. Once she had actually begun to wake up properly she ran downstairs and to the common room.

The marble message tablet was going mental.

She looked at it

"come Dumbledore's office at once!"

Was all it said. It didn't even say who it was to, so she could only assume it was meant for both of them. She ran into Draco's room and told him the situation. He got out of bed and stopped

"Come on we have to hurry" she said

"Aren't you even going to get dressed first?" he asked her "I mean I am all for pyjamas with fuzzy pink animals on them but I don't think its appropriate apparel for the headmasters office, what would people say?"

Hermione laughed at this. He could be very funny when he tried. Just he didn't try very much, just lately

She quickly transfigured her clothes into school robes she knew it would last for 24 hours but she hoped she would be able to get changed properly soon.

"Impressive" Draco smirked at her "come on then"

He had actually found the time to run into his wardrobe and come out completely dressed. Hermione wondered how on earth he had managed it then she remembered that with something's Draco didn't fuss at all. He liked clothes, he knew what suited him and things like that, but when it came to getting dressed, bathing and all that sort of thing he just got on with it and was usually done within seconds. She put this down to his father. She could only assume that he had a lot of pressure upon him when he was small and drilling into someone not to take long in the bathroom is bound to stick after so much time,

They ran through the castle. Nobody else was about yet the other students wouldn't be out of bed for another hour or so. It didn't take them long to reach the stone gargoyle and they shouted the password at it, then ran up the steps.

As they burst through the door. A strange feeling came over Hermione it was as though she was being pushed away from the door.

"Let me try something" Draco said

Hermione stepped aside and Draco walked up to the door, he placed his palm flat on the door and held it there for a minute. Suddenly the door opened.

"What was that all about?" Hermione asked

"Dark magic" he told her

They rushed inside and found all the teachers there, looking over a map to the school. It was nothing as extravagant as the marauders map, just a plain map

"Oh good you're here" Dumbledore said beckoning them to him.

"We have some rather big problems"

"What's the matter?" Hermione asked

"Well at the moment there are about three hundred death eaters in the tunnels leading up to the school" he told them, Hermione gasped, Draco looked indifferent and he noticed Snape was pacing.

"they will try to attack the school, I know its not that long ago since we strengthened the wards, but I do not know if it will hold that many out, three hundred wizards are after all a lot stronger than the fifteen of us that placed them" Dumbledore pushed his glasses back up his nose as he spoke. "We are trying to place strong seals at the tunnel entrances at the moment, but I fear we may need to evacuate to promise complete safety for the students"

"Where do we come into this?" Draco asked "and how come we didn't know about this professor Snape?"

"Voldemort wouldn't have wanted to risk it with us both being in the school at all times. We might have given something away" the greasy haired teacher told him.

"What we need you to do" Dumbledore began "is to go to all the common rooms and wake up the students. And get them on stand by in groups of four for emergency port keys"

"Yes sir" they both said "where will they be taken?"

"To one person in their group's home, we don't have enough portkeys for everybody so friends are going to have to stay with each other" he told them

"Will they be safe at home?" Hermione asked

"Voldemort is not interested in them" Dumbledore told them "he is interested in us, everyday students don't concern him at all, however yourself and Draco will remain here with us"

And with that they went to take a trip to the common rooms, Dumbledore had told them that time was of the essence so Hermione went to Gryffindor and Hufflepuff and Draco visited the slytherins and Ravenclaw. On the way back they both returned to their own common room briefly. Hermione got changed properly and grabbed the marauders map, she knew this would help Dumbledore and they couldn't afford to keep things like this out of the equation.

Upon their return they noticed a definite increase of tension in the room. Snape had finished pacing and was sitting with this head in his hands.

"Right the portkeys have been sent to the common rooms through the floo. And we need to check all the students are gone" Dumbledore said

"here this will help with that" Hermione said pulling out the old parchment that was the map  
"well I haven't seen this for many years" Dumbledore smiled  
"you have seen it before then?" she asked

"Yes, yes I have" he said "I solemnly swear I am up to no good" he said prodding it with his wand.

And the map appeared there were no students left in the castle. So the headmaster shut down the floo network. They then saw where professor Flitwick was down near the dungeons sealing a tunnel up. And all of a sudden they saw a surge of black dots descend upon him and then pass him. And professor Flitwick was showing up no longer

"No" Snape said and hit his hand hard on the table.

"Severus calm down" Dumbledore said "let's just hope professor vector gets back soon"

They watched as professor vector was coming from near the one eyed witch where Harry had sneaked off to Hogsmeade so many times before.

She was soon back in the office with them and then that was everybody.

"We have two choices really?" Dumbledore said "as they can obviously get into the castle now through the dungeons"

Professor McGonagall sniffed at this and got out her handkerchief.

"So we can either stay and fight. But that badly outnumbered I do not recommend it, or we can leave"

"Where would we go? What would we do?" Snape asked "we would never be able to come back here, they would take it for themselves"

"Until we defeat them, then we will take it back" the headmaster told him "we are to step up miss grangers training and we should be ready quicker"

Lupin nodded as the old man said that. He knew he was going to have to work the poor girl a lot harder than he had been.

Hermione smiled at him.  
"Ok now we have no time to collect personal belongings. We must leave now" Dumbledore said "just grab this port key and we will be gone"

They all grabbed hold of the rubber ring the headmaster was holding and felt the familiar pull behind their navels and they were gone.

They all landed in the hallway to 12 grimmauld place. It was far too cramped for sixteen people so they immediately all tried to move and ended up treading on other people.

"Hermione you are standing on my toe" Draco said  
"sorry" she said and moved. Trampling on professor Trelawney's foot

"Do not worry my dear" the old bat told her "I knew that was going to happen"

"Sure you did" Hermione grumbled and made her way towards the kitchen.

"How long do you think we will be here?" Draco asked following her down the hallway.

"God knows, not too long I hope" she told him "I just wonder what's going to happen when voldemort has found out you aren't at the school"

"Yeah me too, I should talk to Snape" he agreed and sat down at the table.

"Yeah. I need to talk to Dumbledore anyway and arrange when I am going to be training" she said and filled the old metal kettle full of water and set it on the hob. "God I love electric"

"Electric?" Draco asked

"Yeah you know like they told you in muggle studies. It powers things" she explained

"I remember" he said vaguely "I never tried it"

"I'm not surprised" she said

"What do you mean by that?" he asked, she noticed he was wary of what she had said.

"Nothing" she replied, she really didn't want to upset him.

"Yes you did" he said, his jaw was set and his eyes had turned a dark stormy colour. Which they always did when he was upset or angry

Hermione sighed and sat down, "I just mean that as a pureblood wizard you aren't likely to try something so mundanely muggle"

"I see" he said standing up "I don't have a problem with Muggles"

"I know you don't" she said and smiled at him

"Do you?" he asked "do you really? Because I know what you think. You think I am prejudice because my father told me I should hate mudbloods"

"I don't think your anything like your father" Hermione said

"Yes you do. Everyone does! Look its death eater Draco Malfoy. Son of famous death eater Lucius Malfoy" he was shouting at her by now. And Hermione was getting rather upset.

"Draco…." She began

"Save it" he said "I'm going to get some air"

He stormed out of the kitchen and Hermione wondered what on earth was wrong with him. It wasn't like him to lose his temper like that especially over something so trivial. But then they all had a lot on their minds, it was probably nothing and he would be ok later. She hoped so.

What seemed like hours later but realistically was probably only ten minutes there was an influx of people into the kitchen and they all sat down at the table. It was quite normal really considering this was the order of the phoenix's headquarters. So Hermione ended up making a lot more tea than she had originally intended.

There was Tonks, Lupin, Snape, Dumbledore, Arthur Weasley, Kingsley shacklebolt, molly Weasley and loads of others, and then Hermione saw him. Ron was there.

Ron looked shyly at Hermione and then went over to her so the "adults" couldn't hear

"Hi" he said

"Hi" she returned "how are you?"

"Pretty good actually" he told her "I am better now, I was all set to come back to school in fact"

"then all this" Hermione said and shook her head  
"yeah" he said "where's Malfoy?"

"I am not sure" she said "I think he went upstairs for a bit"

"I am very sorry about how I treated you Hermione" he apologised

"Don't worry about it Ron" she said "I knew it wasn't really you"

"Yeah I guess if it wasn't for you Dumbledore wouldn't have been able to sort me out" he blushed and kissed her on the cheek "well thanks"

"Your welcome" she said "I want my best friend how he should be"

Ron went to sit at the table. Hermione felt like a third wheel and was getting rather anxious as to Draco's whereabouts.

"miss granger, could you please ask Draco to join us" Dumbledore decided to ask her

"Well I am not really sure where he is" she said "but I will go look for him"

Dumbledore raised an eyebrow at this, but didn't say anything. Hermione left the kitchen and popped her head in various rooms as she passed them.

So far no sign so she decided to take a look upstairs. It was a long time ago since she had been up here. She missed Harry such a lot some time. It was horrid she had felt as though there was something missing from her since he went. And then when she had lost Ron it had only increased. Both those things on top of losing her parents had really given her a rough time of it. But she was still her and she was still strong in her own way. And Draco lent her his strength too. Because he gave her a part of himself. And in some ways she thought it was a part of him that he doesn't know he has.

She knew he loved her. And she knew he knew that. But she didn't know if he really thought about it or if he even realised how much they meant to each other.

After all how easy is it to know you love someone and to say so without thinking about it too much? She nodded her head at this thought. Very easy.

She went through a few bedrooms and found nothing until she came to Harry and Rons room they had always stayed in. she found Draco hunched over a desk writing furiously as though his life depended upon it.

"Erm Draco, Dumbledore asked for you" she told him gently

"Ok I will be right down" he said and cast a locking charm on his diary.

He followed her down the stairs and didn't say anything to her until they were just about to enter the kitchen

"Hermione..." he whispered. She turned to look at him

He looked sad and yet he looked determined, she was terrified of what he was going to say to her. He didn't look like that often, in fact she didn't think she had ever seen him look like that before. She realised how much paler he looked than usual were that even possible.

"Yes" she said and looked him straight in the eye. His eyes faltered and he looked down at his shoes

"I'm sorry" was all he managed to get out before a betraying tear ran down his cheek "I don't know if I can do this"

"Do what?" she asked him gently and wiped the tear away from his cheekbone

"I don't know if I can continue to be with you, having done the things I have done. And the things I might have to do. I am not the man you should be with. You should be with someone who will never harm anyone. Someone who will treat you like the treasure you are. Someone who will show you how much they love you everyday. Someone who will tell you that you are the person that makes their world revolve. That you are the one that brings joy and happiness to his life. That you're the one that makes waking up every morning a blissful experience" he told her. He had always been good at speeches and this was one of his better ones.

Hermione just took his hand and held it in hers.  
"Draco" she said softly and tilted his chin up so their eyes met again. A tear loomed at the corner of the chocolate brown pools that seemed to look into his soul

"Yes" he whispered

She squeezed his hand slightly "he just told me"

She left it at that and walked into the kitchen. He just stared after her. He knew she wouldn't let him go easily but he had been thinking upstairs and he had decided it would be better for her. Well just goes to show what he had always thought really. There was just no telling Hermione granger what was what. She knew what she wanted and she knew what was right and if you weren't going to go along with it then you would have to make sure you were far, far away. He chuckled to himself slightly as he pushed the door open. 'Voldemort watch your back'


	27. Chapter 27 – Plans and Excuses

Chapter 27 – Plans and Excuses

"So good of you to join us Mr Malfoy" Professor Dumbledore said as Draco finally took his seat at the table. Hermione had saved him a seat and he smiled thanks to her.

"Right lets get this meeting under way" the headmaster said "firstly there can be no going back to Hogwarts no matter what, under any circumstance. There are literally hundreds of death eaters there now"

"What exactly happened?" Mrs Weasley asked

"They broke in through tunnels, the only casualty was professor Flitwick" Snape supplied.

Everybody that was sat around the table grimaced.

"We are going to step up miss grangers training. We are going to have to move everything forward" he told them all

"So I need for those training miss granger to be available at all times"

All those that had been giving Hermione training so far nodded and a few she didn't even recognise.

"Excuse me" Draco said "but what will voldemort do when he finds out that neither myself nor professor Snape are at the school?"

"Ah well I had thought of that then it occurred to me just what we shall do" the old man said and his eyes twinkled

Snape raised an eyebrow. It looked like he hadn't been told yet either.

"What you will have to do is return to Hogwarts and explain that you were sent away in all the commotion and couldn't have argued without giving it away but you came straight back as soon as you could" he told them. Draco didn't like the sound of that at all

"He could see straight through it" Draco said "we could be dead within minutes"

"That is a risk that you must take. We can't afford to do anything else at this juncture" Dumbledore said, Snape sighed and nodded to Draco.

Draco sat back in his seat and glared.

Hermione reached for his hand, he let her take it.  
"when will we go?" Snape asked

"Now" Dumbledore said "you need to be seen to be going back as soon as possible, here's a port key to Hogsmeade"

They took it and Draco asked "can I just talk to Hermione for a second"

They all agreed, so the two teenagers went into the hall.

"I wanted to tell you something before I go" he said and hugged her to him  
"what is it?" she asked

"You are right I do love you, painfully so" he said "I just want you to know I am glad you didn't let me fob you off before. I just feel sorry for myself sometimes you know"

Hermione smirked slightly "I know you do, don't worry Draco. I would know if you didn't love me"

"You would?" he asked

"Yeah" she said and smiled up at him "your eyes give you away with everything, like now I know that you are scared, angry, hurt and in love"

"Well at least one of us knows how I feel" he said and smiled "It always takes me such a long time to figure it out"

"Be careful Draco" she told him  
"I will" he said "I don't know when I am going to see you again"

"I know" she said and the tears started to fall "I don't even know if I am going to live through this and I don't want to die. And I don't want to not see you again before I do"

"You won't die" Draco said kissing a tear from her chin. "You are far too stubborn for that. Old voldie will be shaking in his boots and screaming for his mother after you tell him why your there"

Hermione liked it when he made jokes. "Look after yourself" she told him

"Of course I will, you take care too. I am going to miss you so much"

He pulled her into a passionate kiss and it was still so gentle. Hermione thought in a way half of Draco's mind was saying goodbye like as though he thought they would probably never see each other again. But she had too much hope to believe that. Or at least she liked to think she did

"Draco" Professor Snape called "we have to go"

"Ok" he called up to the teacher

"I love you" Hermione said as he let her go

"And I you" he said "see you soon"

"Yeah" she smiled and waved "bye"

Draco and Snape got to Hogsmeade a moment later and set off towards the castle

"Do you think he will know?" Draco asked the elder death eater

"I don't know. I think not. But he might be slightly suspicious at first" Snape said thoughtfully "but you shouldn't worry so much, I mean you killed your own mother for the man, he will trust you a bit"

"Yeah I suppose so" the young blonde agreed.

Voldemort sat in Dumbledore's chair in the great hall and the death eaters sat on the student's tables

"There are people approaching" he said "but do not worry it is only Snape and Malfoy"

The death eaters visibly relaxed at this. And continued with their eating.

Upon entering the great hall Snape and Draco made their way up to the high table and bowed before voldemort,

"We apologise for our lateness my lord" Snape said "unfortunately Dumbledore forced us to leave with the others and we have only just been able to make our return"

Voldemort clearly mulled this over somewhat  
"yes I thought that might be the case" he said "fret not you are here for the fun now, please eat"

Snape and Draco went and sat down and began filling their plates

Hermione felt miserable now that Draco had gone. The order was still going over things and she had no interest in any of it. She just wanted to get trained so she could go and kick that slime balls ass.

"Come along Hermione" Lupin said gently "Looks like we are going to be practicing those unforgivables ahead of time"

"Great" she said sarcastically, but she followed him upstairs anyway.

As the days rolled by and Hermione's training increased she found that her appetite did not. She missed Draco too much and the suspense was slowly killing her or at least that's how it felt. She wished she could write to him but knew that was impossible. She had been working on the unforgivables along with a hundred other things. She had bruises from her physical training but then so did Kingsley. She was beginning to give as good as she got in that area. But the unforgivables evaded her. She just didn't seem to be able to do them. Lupin had gone to Dumbledore and told him that the spiders she had been practicing on hadn't so much as flinched. Even a first year could make a spider flinch. So this had bought everyone round to a new way of thinking. That perhaps "she of light" just didn't have it in her to perform these curses.

"There has got to be a way" Lupin said "everyone must be able to feel some darkness, I don't believe it"

"I don't know" Dumbledore said "its unprecedented ground, it could be possible. It could be impossible, we just need to try and trigger it somehow, but I don't know if we should risk it. She is fragile enough at the moment as it is"

"We need something" Lupin despaired "anything"

"So be it" Dumbledore said "I didn't want to do it, you will just have to tell her Draco is dead"

"He's what?" Lupin shouted

"He isn't, well not as far as we know" The old man said "but it might trigger it if anything will"

Lupin nodded and went off to train with Hermione some more. He didn't want to tell her that. He was debating whether to or not. But knew he would have to. She would hate him for telling her that. And she would no doubt hate him even more when she found out he was lying.

"Hi" she said as he came into what had been dubbed 'training room'

"Hi Hermione, I know we aren't getting very far but I think we should still try and practice" he said taking the spiders out and setting them on the table. They didn't move much because they were partially stunned.

"I just need to tell you something" he said

"What's that?" she asked and stared at him

"Well its, its erm Draco" he told her

"What about him?" she asked quietly

Lupin didn't answer

"WHAT ABOUT HIM?" she screamed at him

"He's dead" the werewolf lied

"No" she screamed "he can't be"

"I am so sorry" he said and hugged her. He saw her eyes they were filled with sadness but there deep beneath there was a fire blazing, it's now or never.

"Hermione the spiders" he said

"AVADA KEDAVRA" she screamed at the spiders. Were the spell done properly whichever spider was hit with the killing curse would die. But for some reason and the strength of Hermione's curse it killed all six of them in an instant.  
"Oh my god" she said "I did it"

"Yes" Lupin laughed "you did" he picked her up and spun her round

Then Hermione burst into tears.

"he's not dead" he told her quickly  
"you what?" she asked and looked very confused

"He's not dead. They wanted me to tell you that to see if we could get you to be able to do that" he said and backed away slightly

"You what?" she said again "he's not dead?"

"No" Lupin said and looked utterly ashamed of himself

"Thank god for that" she said and sat down "wow, did I really kill all of them?"

"Aren't you mad at me?" he asked her

"No not really" she said "I know you were just doing what you had to do"

"Thank god" he agreed "I thought you were going to hate me"

"It's just a question as to whether I can do it now I know he isn't" she said "are there any more spiders?"

"No you killed them all" he smiled "I'll go get some more, we can carry on after lunch"

Hermione went off to visit Ron. He was in the living room reading a book. They hadn't spoken all that much since they got there. But she felt the old Ron was definitely coming back which was a good thing,

"Hello" she said sitting in the chair next to his

"Hi, how's the training going?" he asked her

"Not bad I just managed an unforgivable" she told him and smiled

"Wow, you must be really strong then" he said and looked genuinely shocked "I didn't think any of us would be able to do that sort of thing really"

"Well Lupin told me Draco was dead and I kind of lost it" she explained

"Malfoy's dead?" Ron asked and all the attention he had been placing on his book was gone.

"no" Hermione shook her head "or at least not as far as any of us now, they just told me that to see if they could make me kill the spiders"  
"oh" the redhead said and picked his book back up.

"He's not bad you know" Hermione said and studied him closely.

"I am sorry I can't bring myself to believe that" he told her. He was staring at his book but not reading it.

"I thought for a while at school when Harry was around that he might be ok" he said quietly "but after everything that happened I know if it wasn't for him it wouldn't have, I think I have come to terms with everything Hermione but I can't accept that. I am really sorry and for your sake I would love to, but I just can't. Please don't ask me too" his eyes looked at her imploringly

"I wont ask you to" she said with a resigned sigh "I know how hard it is for you, it's been hard for all of us as well though, and if you cant accept that Draco is a good person well that's fine and I respect that but don't think any less of me because I love him ok"

"I know you do and I won't" he told her "I don't think that would be possible"

Hermione left the room then to see Dumbledore and Ron set his book down on the table. He sometimes found lately that sitting and thinking seemed to help him a lot. After all he had always had the Weasley temper and doing this seemed to help him calm down.

'Draco a good person?' he thought to himself. 'maybe, maybe not, I don't want to waste my time finding out. I just hope he doesn't hurt Hermione'

He had resigned himself to the fact that Hermione would never love him as anything but a brother. And now he was used to this he had a lot less on his mind.

"Hello Miss Granger" Dumbledore said as Hermione entered the room he had turned into a makeshift office of sorts.

"Hello" she said and sat down on a brown armchair.

"Remus told me about your little session earlier on" he said looking at her over his glasses.  
"yes sir" she said  
"I would firstly like to apologise for such underhanded tactics, and I would also like to explain to you why we felt them so necessary" he said

"It's alright sir" she said I understand "if it hadn't been for that I might never have been able to do it"

"You are a very sensible girl miss granger, you make me very proud" He said "now why don't you go and fetch some lunch. I think molly has made us a rather nice spread and then you may continue your training afterwards"

"Yes sir" she said and smiled at her headmaster as she left the room.

There was nobody else except for Mrs Weasley in the kitchen when she arrived. Though it was still a little early for lunch really.

"Hello dear" molly said  
"hello Mrs Weasley" Hermione replied

"How many times have I told you" molly scolded "call me Molly"

"Sorry molly" Hermione said and picked up a sandwich

"How's your training coming along?" the red haired woman asked.

"Pretty well I think" the young brunette answered in-between bites.

"Good, good I hate being stuck in here" the older woman complained

"Me too" Hermione said "I just keep wondering how Draco is"

"Yes dear we all are as well, for your sake I hope he is ok"

Lupin came in at that point and also grabbed a sandwich "hey moll, bet you didn't know this young lady avada'd six spiders with one curse" he said

"Remus don't talk with your mouth full" Molly chided him. Lupin laughed but didn't speak again till his mouth was empty.

"Sorry molly" he said

"Did you really?" Mrs Weasley asked Hermione

"Yes" Hermione said, she was feeling quite embarrassed by all this. She never really had liked a fuss being made of her.

"Well that's great news" molly said and hugged her tightly, this upset Hermione a little as it reminded her of when her mum hugged her,

Hermione stepped back a little and must have looked on the verge of tears because Mrs Weasley took her hand and stroked it

"I'm sorry dear, I didn't think" she said

"Its ok" Hermione said and smiled "it just takes some getting used to I suppose"

"Come on then, I got some more spiders" Lupin said and dragged her off to the training room

"Ok" Hermione said sitting at the table "you just want me to try again"

"Yes please" Lupin said, she did as asked and found that all four spiders in the box died.

"Interesting" her teacher said "don't worry I got plenty this time"

"good job" Hermione said  
"although I think you are still upset about Mrs Weasley a moment ago" he told her. "We need to try doing some calming techniques"

He showed her how to meditate and told her to meditate for about an hour and then we she had done so she would be trying it again,

Lupin sat quietly reading a book as Hermione meditated she didn't feel very calm at first and thought it was a load of rubbish. But after about ten minutes or so she felt very relaxed. It was enchanting she couldn't remember the last time she had felt so peaceful. She didn't give it to much thought and just let everything wash over her.

An hour later Lupin tapped Hermione gently on the shoulder, she opened her eyes and stood up slowly.

"Ok" he said and handed her, her wand that had been sat on the table

Hermione focused on the spiders and her wand and uttered the killing curse. A sharp blast of green light left the end of the wand and it killed the spider it had been aiming for.

"Just one this time" Lupin said peering into the box. "Good job"

"I can hardly sit there meditating in front of voldemort though can I?" Hermione asked

"no you cant and at that point if you can hit six of them it would be great but I have a feeling you need that strength to come up against him anyway" he told her "it will be ok, I just wanted to make sure that you are capable of doing it to just one, and it seems when you are focused you can do just that. Nobody is going to expect you to be calm and collected when you face voldemort but they are going to hope that you can come through it. It will be alright"

"I hope so" she said "I think I am going to go lie down"

"Ok" he said "see you tomorrow"

Draco was sitting next to Snape, they seemed to find themselves always thrown together, Voldemort had little meetings now and again with select death eaters and they both always seemed to be at the same ones of these also.

" Any word?" he whispered so quietly he barely even spoke

Snape just shook his head  
"this is boring just sitting and waiting for Dumbledore to compile an army" the blonde continued to say a little louder, nobody could tell him off for being bored surely.

"It will happen" Snape said

Voldemort had been having another meeting with some death eaters that Draco wasn't familiar with, 'must be some new recruits' he thought to himself.

When the snakelike man returned he addressed them all  
"we have excellent news" he said and his red eyes shone. Draco felt as though they were burning into his soul.

"We have found out Dumbledore's plans" he continued "there is a girl, I don't know who she is yet. But she will be coming to fight me." He started laughing at this, although it was really more of a cackle than anything. "I will be defeated by a schoolgirl, oh I think not"

The man was evil through and through, you only had to look at him to sense it. He reeked of darkness. And Draco despised him, he couldn't wait until Hermione showed up and kicked his ass.


	28. Chapter 28 – Here without you

Chapter 28 – Here without you

Time passed by as slowly as it could or so it seemed to Hermione and Draco who were miles apart and couldn't communicate. They were missing each other terribly and they couldn't wait till this horrible situation was over.

Hermione was progressing well with her training. Draco was being sent out again and again to muggle houses to torture and kill and to provide the world with more proof that Voldemort was back out there and he was bigger and better than ever before.

Draco wished more than anything when he was out that he could just forget it all and go back to grimmauld place but he knew that he could never do that, he was always flanked by other death eaters and they always had to report everything that happened to voldemort.

He had stopped counting the death toll at two hundred and they were just his, he felt that every time he took a life inside him a little something died, he just prayed that by the time he saw Hermione again he wouldn't have lost his soul.

Hermione had taken to counting the days since she had last seen Draco and it was more and more depressing every day. She was fortunate to have such great people around her all the time and she felt that she owed them her sanity and strength.

She dreamt of Draco constantly and sometimes saw visions of people being tortured, she hoped these really were just dreams but then after seeing all the daily profit reports of muggle killings it just proved it was true, she knew when it said death eaters there could be no way that Draco wouldn't be involved, voldemort would be making them all do it. She really hoped Draco wasn't killing people and was just standing to the side. But deep down inside she knew this couldn't be the case because he would have been killed by now if not.

Draco was sitting in the astronomy tower one night just looking at the stars and wondering what Hermione was doing at that moment. If he had known he would have laughed. She was sitting at her desk reading through the notes she had taken on her training.

He missed her so much. He had a piece of parchment in his robe pocket and decided to write her a letter, he wouldn't send it. Voldemort would sense the owl. But he could write it and keep it.

Dear Hermione,

I can't even begin to tell you how much I miss you, I'm a hundred days older since I saw your pretty face. A thousand lights have made me colder and I don't think I can look at this the same. All the miles that separate us disappear when I dream of your face. I'm here without you baby but your still on my lonely mind. I think about you baby and I dream about you all the time.

Forever yours

Draco

**(A/N this letter is taken from the lyrics to here without you by 3 doors down. A fantastic song)**

He folded it up and put it back into his pocket and sat there for a little while longer. All of a sudden the gong for dinner went so Draco made his way down to the great hall with a heavy heart.

"I think we are talking days now" Dumbledore said to Hermione that evening after receiving updates on her training from all her mentors.

Hermione didn't take this news well in fact she began to shake and get very nervous.

"It's alright to feel scared" Lupin said sitting Hermione down "I think we all are really"

Hermione tried to reply but could only look like a fish out of water.

"Don't worry" Dumbledore said "the last couple of days of your training will be meditation and relaxing"

"Will that help?" she finally managed to ask  
"I think so" the headmaster told her.

Hermione agreed to it and left to go to bed.

The next few days were tense for everybody and there was a definite atmosphere at grimmauld place. Right until the last moment.

"Hermione its time to go" Lupin said bringing her out of her trance

"Really?" she asked and sighed as she stood

The rest of the order had already assembled in the hall. Ron was stood to one side by the door to the living room

"Aren't you coming?" Hermione asked  
"no" he said "you guys don't need me getting in the way"

"I could do with some moral support" she told him

"You want me to come?" he asked her

She looked up at him and remembered the first year at Hogwarts

"Yeah" she said "you never know they might have a giant chess board"

He laughed at that "I doubt it"

"I know, but you should be here for this, as should Harry. You two were and you are my best friend in all the world, and if I have to go through this alone then I don't really know what I am going to do"

"I think you are right, if it was Harry going then we would be here with him wouldn't we?" he asked

"You bet we would. I wouldn't miss it for the world" she said and smiled. It seemed such a long time ago that she had smiled.

"Let's do this"

"Ok" he said and grabbed his wand from the table

"I have the port key" Dumbledore said "it will activate in sixty seconds"

They all gathered round and took hold. This was no mean feat for thirty odd people. And……

The death eaters had just come back from their nightly outing and were assembled in the great hall to give voldemort his reports.

Draco stood in line and was trying to forget the screams of the people he had tortured that night. Snape just stood next to him quietly.

Voldemort called upon Draco

"Yes my lord" Draco said standing in front of the one he despised more than anyone in the entire world

"How did you get on this evening?" he asked him

"Very well my lord" Draco said "we took out ten houses"

"excellent" voldemort sneered happily "you may rejoin your line"  
Draco went to bow as was customary, and as he did so the piece of parchment so lovingly written slipped out of his pocket and onto the floor

'Shit' Draco mentally screamed 'maybe he didn't notice'

"Accio parchment" voldemort said and took the parchment out of the air as it sped towards him "now let me see what is this?"

He opened it and began to read. As he read Draco saw his face turn red and the look of sheer hatred was impossible to not notice. Snape looked at Draco and shook his head

'What had he done'

He couldn't believe he hadn't put a concealing charm or something on it.

"What is the meaning of this?" The dark lord screamed

"It's a letter to my girlfriend" Draco muttered "its very old, I had forgotten it was in there"

All of a sudden Draco felt as though knives were being driven into his brain. And his nose started to bleed. Soon enough it stopped apparently voldemort had finished probing his mind

"Liar" he shouted "I know now all of the truth you are a traitor, and you're little girlfriend will come to try and kill me will she?"

"Yeah and she's going to kick your ass" Draco shouted and waited, he waited for the curses to come, for there to be nothing more. He knew he would most probably die and would never see Hermione again. But he just stood there. Voldemort was staring at the back of the hall where there stood thirty or so people that he really didn't want to see.

Hermione stood in front of the rest of the group and was wearing a stunning silver robe that Draco had never seen before.

"Well I am going to try" she said and winked at Draco

Then all hell broke loose and curses ensued like crazy all over the place. Nobody dared stand still for even a second for fear of being hit. Hermione took out death eater after death eater as she ploughed through them trying to get to voldemort"

Draco was holding his own well in a corner when he saw Ron being backed into a corner by about eight death eaters. He ran over and started casting the killing curse at them all. Ron finally free from all his wannabe murderers thanked Draco and they split up to continue fighting. Draco hadn't even noticed the hundreds of aurors show up but they seemed to be coming off quite well.

Hermione neared voldemort when a death eater tried to curse her

"NO!" voldemort said

"What's the matter?" Hermione asked "you want to join our team?"

"Hardly" he scoffed at her "I want to know why you think you can beat me"

"Let me show you" she said and opened her bag. She took out the orb that Dumbledore had let her take for the occasion. She quickly looked around the hall, it was a massacre really. There were bodies everywhere and so much fighting. Yet here in front of Voldemort it was calm and Hermione didn't feel in danger at all. It was all so surreal.

"whats that?" he asked her as she placed it on the table in front of him.

"it's a test" she told him "don't be scared, you've done it before"

"Have I now?" he asked and inspected the orb "ah yes I remember now, you want to see do you? Not many would believe it"

He placed his hands on the orb and it quickly began to fill with the black liquid that Hermione had lacked on her attempt

As it was full a black pulsating aura eminated from him. And he grinned. It was pure evil at its worst and Hermione couldn't imagine anything worse.

"So you see" he said "I am the only person to ever solely fill it with one colour"

"That's what you think" she said and grasped it with both hands. It filled quickly with silver and once it was full again Hermione's aura filled the room

Voldemort looked a bit surprised

"Silver?" he asked "it's supposed to be black and gold, are you broken?"

Hermione laughed at this "maybe the orb is defective"

He looked at it and tapped it with his wand "I doubt that"

"well why don't you try it again" she said he raised an eyebrow or what would be eyebrows if he actually resembled something human.  
"It's a trick" he said

"Scared?" she asked him

"I am scared of nothing and no one" he said and grabbed the orb yet again. Only as he did so Hermione placed her hands on it also. The orb was filling with both black and silver. Hermione's palms were burning her and she was sure that his would be doing the same. But she couldn't have let go even if she had wanted to. It was like they were forced onto it now and would never let go.

As it began to fill the colours swirled together and once it was full Hermione's aura began to take over voldemort and his her. The air was filled with a silver and black light that was ferociously fighting each other. Hermione felt the darkness trying to take her. But she was meditating and managing to hold it back.

Voldemort however was having trouble with the light that was trying to claim him. It was making him feel happy and remember some of his nice memorys he had chosen to forget. It reminded him of the first girl he had ever loved. It reminded him of when he had first come to Hogwarts and how much he had loved it. He remembered his childhood friends and it hurt him. He had opened his mind to it and it was taking him over. He howled in agony. and he managed to finally wrench his hands off the orb.

"you bitch!" he screamed "how dare you?"

he pulled his wand on her, Hermione had pre-empted this and had her wand held towards him already

"you think you can beat me?" he asked "you think a pathetic excuse of a school girl and a mudblood one at that can defeat me?"

"I don't" she said and looked around the great hall dolefully "I know"

he just glared at her. "I am sick of these games, I am going to kill you now and your little boyfriend"

Hermione saw Draco out of the corner of her eye. He was holding up well as was Ron. They had teamed up and were taking out death eater after death eater. Ron wasn't killing them. He couldn't but he was slowing them down so Draco could.

"in fact I am going to kill them first, just so you can watch" voldemort said cockily

"he raised his arm and shouted the killing curse. A stream of green light flashed towards Ron and Draco. Hermione screamed and Draco didn't notice. Ron did though and dived in front of Draco it hit Ron square in the chest and he fell to the floor  
"you bastard" Hermione screamed and shouted "AVADA KEDAVRA"

then all was silent. She had killed him along with the rest of the deatheaters in a 5 foot radius

The rest of the deatheaters fled in a hurry and the aurors followed swiftly after. There was only about twenty or so left now so they would be fairly easy to apprehend.

Hermione stepped down from the teachers table and walked toward Draco. He was knelt over Rons body.

Hermione knelt down and closed rons eyes "that bastard" she swore and began to cry.

"he did it for me?" Draco asked her uncertainly

"Yes" Hermione said "and for me"

"Shit" Draco said and turned to her "he didn't have to you know. It was his choice"

"in a way, but I talked him into coming" she told him, " I should have let him stay back at the order"

"lets go and tell his parents" Draco said helping her up. He held her up as they walked out into the Hogwarts entrance where the remaining order members were.

"Hermione you did it" they all shouted and rejoiced her, they grabbed her and hugged her.

"please molly stop" Hermione begged the older woman who was hugging her

"whats the matter?" Mrs Weasley asked her

"its Ron" she told her

"Ron?" the elder woman asked

"he got hit" she explained and burst into tears

"no" Mrs Weasley said and began to cry. She was shaking.

Mr Weasley looked in shock then he began to cry and held his wife close to him.

All of a sudden the door from the great hall opened and Ron stepped out.

"Ron?" they all asked  
"it cant be" Hermione said and walked up to him to see if it was really him

"its me" Ron said "I think he missed me"

"no Ron. I saw it, it hit you right in your heart" she told him certainly

Ron looked down at his chest, there was a scorch mark on his breast pocket. He reached into it and pulled out a photograph. It was of himself, Harry and Hermione when they were in third year. They had all been running along the grass arm in arm when colin had took a picture. Hermione had gotten three copies off him. And they had all had one.

"how come you had that in your pocket?" Hermione asked him

"I dunno really" he said "I just thought it might bring me some luck"

"I don't really know what happened" Dumbledore said "and I think sometimes we can look too hard for explanations. Lets just be happy it all ended well"

"amen to that" Mrs Weasley said, she was still red faced but she was gripping her son tight and it didn't look like she was planning on letting go anytime soon either.

Later that evening Hermione and Draco finally managed to get a minute alone together. He took her up to the astronomy tower and they sat looking at the stars.

"I wrote you a letter" he said

"so I heard" she laughed "so do I get to see it?"

"that, I think it might be lost somewhere in the great hall" he said "somewhere beneath the ashes and the rubble"

"it could be" she said "or it could be right here"

she held up a piece of parchment and smiled at him

"how did you get that?" He asked her

"voldemorts not the only one that can do an accio spell" she said and passed it to him

"I haven't read it you know"

"good" he said "its not right to read letters that you haven't been given"

she smiled as he passed it to her, she read it quickly and looked him in the eye.

"who would have thought we would have come this far and been through everything we have been through" she said

"this time last year, I thought you were the worst scum of the earth, my two best friends were all I really cared about, besides my parents, and now I have lost my parents, lost one of my best friends, almost lost the other one on a number of occasions and well as for you I kind of like having you around"

"youre not so bad yourself" he said and kissed her. They hadn't kissed for about three months and Hermione melted into the kiss. It said everything she wanted it to and more

"Hermione?" Draco asked

"yes" she said softly and her eyes met his. It seemed as though the whole world drifted away and there was just him and her. Nothing else at all.

"I was wondering something?" he said

"whats that?" She asked

"would you, well would you marry me?" he asked

"would I marry you?" she asked gobsmacked "I'd love to"

"well I think we should finish school first" he said

"I cant wait" she said

"and there was me thinking you wouldn't ever want school to finish" he said "I thought you were going to take up permanent residence in the library and stay here forever"

she playfully punched his arm

"I only know a few things right know" she said "and that's that I love you more than anything in the world and that wherever Harry is now I hope he is happy"

"I am sure he is" Draco said and put his arm round her. A shooting star streaked through the sky. Hermione closed her eyes and made a wish 'Harry may you rest in peace'

The End

thank you for being so patient and please let me know what you think. I am very uncomfortable with doing the battle things so let me know what you thought of that.

thanks for reading it and I hope you enjoyed it!


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